What next, Prime Minister? Sing ‘we shall overcome’ on the balcony?

On Sunday at 9 pm, most Indians will mark the nation's fight against the coronavirus disease by turning off the lights at their homes. If seen from the skies above, India will come across as a country dotted with light from candles, lamps and torches,

Making an appearance in a video message, Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi has requested everybody to keep the tiny lights shining for nine minutes at 9 pm. No more, no less, although one can assume that many over-enthusiastic Indians will demonstrate their reverence for The Voice by keeping the usual lights switched off for much longer.

What, however, is the undisclosed significance of exactly nine minutes at 9 pm? While you struggle to find an answer to that, the misplaced emphasis on optics is what is most disturbing. We have seen from recent experience that making ear-splitting noise from balconies and rooftops comes naturally to the majority. Switching off bulbs and tube lights and using other light-producing devices for a few minutes would be easy, too.

But, do we need such acts during times of national distress, which won’t end even if a medical solution were to appear out of nowhere overnight?

We do not.

If the dangerous virus takes its own sweet time to go away, don't be surprised if another message asks us to join in a prayer to the Sun God in the morning. While we may not be told why that needs to be done, some experts think that the mysterious virus is unlikely to survive in the heat. If the Sun God hears our prayers, therefore, the brutal Indian summer can arrive faster than expected, numbing or even annihilating the novel coronavirus.

If asked to sing the national anthem, all of us will do that as devotedly as we do. That, in fact, will be a good thing.

If asked to sing the national song, however, not many can do it from start to finish without mispronouncing the words in the lyrics – if they remember them in the first place.

Masks, even DIY ones, seem to be more useful than many experts had initially thought. That being the case, a message can request us to wear them and show our faces to the world at a specified time. The sight of millions with half-covered faces will encourage many others to do the same, we can be told.

If the ongoing pandemic doesn’t go away on its own soon, ideas of ways in which we can come together to express national solidarity and optimism can get more absurd with time.

Don’t be surprised if a message advises you to visit a government-run channel and listen to the unscientific ‘gyan’ of some His Holiness clad in saffron. Rest assured, most of India will follow the Pied Piper.

So, then, is this writer imagining the impossible? That is not true. Before the pandemic hit us hard, did you ever think that most Indians would be out on their balconies someday, with many striking utensils, others blowing conch shells, and morons stepping out of their homes without any idea of the danger involved? Nobody did.

As the nation combats a mysterious menace, losing many battles and winning a few, it is important to remember that grave social and economic realities are staring at our faces.

These concerns won’t disappear from our lives soon even if we keep the lights switched off for nine hours.

Views expressed in the article are the author’s own