(Image from pixabay.com)
“Manish, there you are!” cried Swati. “I have been so worried. You should have been home an hour back from school”.
Manish, Swati’s 8-year-old son, looked pensive, taking his time to reply. Since, he usually talked non-stop, Swati frowned, getting worried.
After a pause, Manish spoke “I was talking to Dharmendra uncle for some time”.
“What!!” exclaimed Swati stunned. Dharmendra uncle lived in a flat on the ground floor alone. He was over 90 years old and was often seen muttering to himself. Most people in the apartment complex felt he had some mental illness, though they were not entirely sure what in particular.
“But I have warned you so many times to be careful and not talk to him…..What was he talking to you about?” asked Swati.
“Well he spoke to me about the UVT virus..” said Manish slowly.
“What! There he goes imagining things! I always knew there was something wrong with him. See – how he hallucinates. I hope you don’t start believing such nonsense!” Swati exclaimed animatedly.
“He actually convinced me the virus exists” said Manish. “And we may all have it. But we can fight it!”
Swati flopped on the sofa stunned. One chance encounter with a mentally ill old man seemed to have wreaked complete havoc with her son’s mind.
“Well, let me tell you what happened”, said Manish.
“Ok..” said Swati leaning forward, worry writ large on her face.
Manish -
“As you know, we had a few plays and songs for Gandhi Jayanthi at school. We then had a painting contest and finally we formed groups to clean the park in the neighbourhood. I just got off the school bus and Dharmendra uncle also entered the complex at the same time, walking very slowly”.
He looked at me, smiled, and asked what we did at school today. I told him about the morning at school. I asked him if he remembered the time of independence, when he must have been very young.
He replied “Of course”. “
“There are not too many of us around who were there from that time”, he said chuckling.
At this point we saw two groups of people screaming at each other near our gate. It looked like they will get into a physical fight at any time. I was frightened. Uncle sensed it and held my hand.
He muttered “The UVT virus never goes away. It mutates, but stays. And we don’t have enough people fighting it now”.
“What do you mean?” I asked him.
“Do you want to have tea with an old man?” he asked “I will tell you some stories”.
I hesitated since you had told me there was something wrong with him. I then saw Rashi walking towards the gate and asked uncle if she could join as well, as I felt very nervous in going alone with him.
“Of course”, said uncle smiling.
I called out to Rashi, and she joined us. While uncle walked ahead of us to the coffee shop, I told Rashi why I had called her. We both entered the coffee shop with uncle, and there was no one but us in the shop.
“Ah!” said uncle. “I always love a calm and quiet setting to talk. Noise tires me these days”.
He looked at us, smiled, and spoke “I forget many things these days….But many of the events from earlier times are still well etched in my memory”.
He then ordered masala tea.
“Ah, I was to tell you about the UVT virus”.
He continued “Many of us do not realize that we are carrying the virus. Since it is a very wily virus. There are many different variants of the virus but they are very similar in the impact they have”.
The masala tea arrived. Taking one slow sip, he spoke “Sometimes it lies dormant within us, and life goes on peacefully. It rears its ugly head a little and makes us irritable and angry. And it can run amok provoking violence”.
Taking another sip of tea, he continued “You saw the two groups of people quarrelling. It was the UVT virus which caused it”.
“What?!” both me and Rashi exclaimed. “How could you know? And who among them was infected according to you?”.
“Well, they all were. They had slightly different mutations, but they all were”, he said nodding his head up and down slowly.
We felt a little uneasy at hearing this, but waited for uncle to continue speaking.
“I still remember the period we got independence. The UVT virus was rampant at that time – maliciously injected. There were groups of infected people who fought each other. There was such terrible violence.”
“There were some leaders who did their best to contain the virus. In particular one great man. He put himself at great personal risk and went among the infected without fear – trying his best to stop them fighting each other.”, he said softly. “But let me return to him after a while”.
Rashi and me were now very curious. We sipped our tea, and waited to hear more.
“The UVT virus is the – Us Vs Them virus. We inherently acquire a basic form of this virus very quickly. In fact, even animals have it. When we look at some people, we feel they are us – based on religion, language, or something else. And then there are them – who are different. “
“In its simple forms, the UVT virus works in subtle ways such as groupism where we help us rather than them. As the virus works its way within us, we soon feel them are bad – and that they work against us. In the extreme forms it can lead to contempt, anger and even violence against - them. All those who think the problem is with a certain - them are all infected, be it left or right, this or that, the label does not matter….”.
“The best time to fight this virus is when young – at your age” he said looking at us calmly.
“And the man I mentioned earlier. He fought the virus within first – to believe from the bottom of his heart that we are all one and there is no Us vs Them. He then fought the virus among us like none other, debating and stopping the violent, even if it meant great danger to him…..It is his 150th birth anniversary, we celebrate today – Mahatma Gandhi”.
