My Covid Experiences - Part II - The age of innocence thrives, and rise of the WhatsApp University

 

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I landed in Dehradun on March 10th. It’s that time of the year when the bitterness of winter is giving way to the harshness of summer. Whoever said it, Paradise lay in the transition got it right. The nights are the most pleasant and people like me who were ensconced in their burrows during winters would begin to venture out for walks. 

The next day I reported for duty. My boss who had to go on tour abroad had to cancel his trip because of the seriousness of the pandemic in the west. WHO declared Covid 19 as a pandemic on March 1. However, life continued in India with gay abandon. 

The next day International Women’s Day was celebrated in my office and there was no trace of any protocol. Only biometric access had been disabled, and the freedom to come to the office at flexible hours was given. Some sensible people were wary of the virus, but not ones like me. The age of innocence was beginning to crack at its foundation.

In all this, the ubiquitous WhatsApp University was spreading the theories of its random renegade research(RRR). First among them was, Indians were more immune to the virus because they live in a country that has not yet become fully “Swatch Bharat”. Next up was, due to the Indian style of cooking Covid will perish in penury. Then was this theory, the Indian Summer will decimate Covid. There were some sensible messages on how to improve immunity, and they were worth a try to avoid being infected. Largely, the pandemic period was the beginning of the golden age for WhatsApp University. Read,  unsubstantiated claims credibility in the guise of “Don’t be skeptical, there is no wrong in believing “. Wonder whether such people would believe if someone would say you can sneeze out your brain, if you tried hard. Here is the link to a research on fake news in India through WhatsApp during covid 

Fake news through WhatsApp University

I was still celebrating my return to Dehradun. How uncouth was I! The storm was coming and it waited for an event.