ARA: Well Mr Covid-19, it is said that you are born and brought up in Wuhan.
Covid-19: I don’t know exactly. Some say I was created by Zionists to reduce the world population. There is also an opinion that CIA has launched me to destroy Chinese economy, whereas USA blames that a Chinese lab has fathered me as a biological weapon. Muslims believe that Allah has created me to punish their enemies. Some vegans are of the view that I am an incarnation of God assigned to eradicate omnivores like the Chinese from the earth. Really, not sure who I am? I remember that when I saw the world in my first encounter with it, I found myself stuck on a toilet wall in the Wet Market of Wuhan from where a lady vendor transmitted me to others and soon I have become almost omniwhere.
ARA: What is your mission?
Covid-19: I feel an internal urge to reform the world. I see how race, nationalism, religion and history are causing sufferings to vast majority of mankind. I see how a section of mankind is devastating nature, its own home. So, I am against divisive tendencies. Of course, I am against a mankind that failed to respect other kinds of the world. I don’t give value to nationalism. I don’t care for religious hypocrisy. Even I am not bothered for masses who elect tyrants. I would like to teach them all a lesson or two.
ARA: You may perhaps agree that there is a natural diversity among people on the ground of race, geography, religion, history and the like.
Covid-19: In my view, they all are differently-one. A tree is a one unit though its roots, trunk, leaves, flowers and fruits appear differently. There is no doubt that mankind is one race with 99.9% common DNA. National boundaries are fictitious. All religions claim their origin from one supreme being. History is just a story book of past. If they cannot be sure of a few month-long history of my origin then how they are passionately believing in their distant past, including prehistory. Alas! Man lives in his self-made illusion. I am forcing him to come out of this illusion.
ARA: How much you have succeeded in your mission?
Covid-19: First of all, I have prisoned the culprit – man – to further harm anyone or to each other. Those who will unfollow my dictates, will suffer. With this global lockdown and two billion home prisoners, the nature is claiming its space. Air has been purified. Rivers are clean. Animals are free to move. The green carpet of the earth is expanding. The ozone layer is healing. The crimes have come down. The shallowness of religious bigotry has been exposed. The ideological polemics are becoming redundant. So much so far.
ARA: But, millions of people are suffering, thousands are dying every day….
Covid-19: I am not to be blamed. It is their own chosen fate. They are free to adopt better system, better leader and better code of life. However, their greed is unparalleled in nature and almost insatiable, which distracts them from taking a right decision. If man is diminishing thousands of species with billions of life forms in a year, he has no right to claim mercy. There is no one to weep for men.
ARA: What is your advice to people who care?
Covid-19: Man should develop a global system based on justice, freedom, dignity, mercy, equality, knowledge and brotherhood, not only within human society but transcending to all life forms on the earth. Everything has its due share in nature and that should be respected. Greed is catastrophic. Let man learn during my reign the lessons of caring and sharing. Let him break his shell of greed or face the consequences, as I am not going to rest until I fulfil my mission. If I fail, there are more like me in store to join the onslaught. As I have said, whatever is occurring represents a human choice. Man has an option to choose a pleasant future. He will, if he is wise as he claims.
Author is a social activist, political analyst and author of many books
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