Why are `fat cats’ being so reckless in Covid times?

24 Dec 2020: A group of 30 revellers at a destination wedding return to Kolkata and test COVID-positive. Some have to be hospitalised.

-- A gang of friends goes to a nearby resort to celebrate an anniversary and 10 out of 12 test positive; one of them succumbs to the deadly virus. And yet…

-- Every star hotel banquet in town is booked for a wedding, an anniversary, a birthday… name it and you have it.

-- One star hotel is brimming over about hundred honeymoon couples and every hand on the kitchen deck is busy whipping up anniversary cakes.

I just cannot reconcile the two.

What is happening to us?

Even as the coronavirus sends the world reeling, more and more invitations for weddings and social events pile up on my desk. This is causing acute FOBI (fear of being included) in me. Every invitation seems to be an open challenge to put my own and my family’s life at risk. But for the vast majority in my social circle, FOMO (fear of missing out) continues to be the mantra to mingle.

Make no mistake, I am not alone in the FOBI group. There are others I know who feel anxious at being invited to group or social events now. A recent invitation from a friend inviting me for his wife’s 35th birthday left me speechless, more so because my polite refusal was rejected! Acquaintances, homeschooled in traditional rules of etiquette, refuse to take no for an answer and insist you must be there. This ati aachar or extreme behaviour is nothing short of emotional atyachar.

One can understand when poor, illiterate citizens cannot comply with Covid-19 norms out of necessity. Work from home is a luxury that not many can afford, and nine months into the pandemic, financial compulsion has forced the vast majority out into the world to keep food on the table.

But when educated social fat cats use their clout to flout the pandemic rules for their own merriment, it causes far more harm to society. All those messages and campaigns urging people to maintain social distancing seem to go down the drain. It also provokes resentment in several quarters as it puts society's inequalities on full public view.

Hotels and travel agencies are facing a grim dichotomy: while having to cope with declining revenues and job cuts, they also have to contend with clients who have scant respect for regulations and often use their influence to bend the rules.

I know about mega weddings in star hotels where a limited number of visitors are allowed as per the pandemic rules. One organiser, not to be curbed by these restrictions, booked three banquets in different names on the same day at the same hotel. On the day of the wedding, stunned hotel authorities watched guests from three different venues converge at the spot where the ceremony was taking place, in a blatant violation of social distancing norms. And this formula has become most common now accepted by everyone .

I know of so many people who have been organising avoidable public gatherings and events with a business-as-usual approach. It is like there has been a lockdown on one’s reasoning. We’ve all seen pictures on social media of crowded Goa nightclubs with no hint of COVID-19 precautions. I was even more stunned to see on television a crowd marching hand-in-hand, many of them without masks, to spread awareness about… coronavirus!

The Delhi government has increased fines for not wearing facemasks in public to ₹2,000, to help check the spread of the disease. But for the rich and often infamous, this is hardly a deterrent.

The rush to circumvent rules is like an epidemic in itself. Political rallies, holidaying, weddings and social gatherings during a crisis like this reveal an attitude that reeks of arrogance and downright stupidity. One of the primary advantages of being educated is the ability it gives us to connect the cause and effect of events. But in a society where money, influence and hubris rank higher than reasoning, our very survival is at stake.

The world over, this pandemic debate has been about the two Ls: Life and Livelihood. I would like to add a third L: Lunacy.

What else can explain our crazy compulsion for hosting and attending social functions when a pandemic is at its peak.

ess bee