assorted bars of soap

Day 3 of the COVID-19 lockdown here and I realize I’ve been a cleanliness freak all along! I have to be dog-tired to not clean my house up. I also love to have things in order and in their places and I’ll go to any lengths to get it done. This probably means I’m a neatness freak as well? Whatever! Everyone is a freak on some level. 😜

Coming back to cleanliness, this whole hand-washing situation that everyone is talking about, as a major precaution against COVID-19 is literally normal to me, I’ve  washed my hands so many times they look wrinkly like raisins! Yours probably do too? If they don’t then maybe (fill in that blank).

It’s been so fascinating to now see people around me washing their hands after everything!

My husband has taken this behaviour up 5000 levels where he even wipes down the post – letters and even catalogues from grocery stores before he’ll read them. As soon as he comes into the house, handles are being wiped, clothes worn outside or in the bus are designated ‘unclean’! Who is this man?!

Thoughts:

  1. Will all the excess soap water going down our drains and maybe eventually getting dumped into lakes / rivers / oceans damage aquatic life? Do we care? Are our lives more important? Is there a balance?
  2. What’s actually better? Liquid soap or soap bars? I ask because I saw this video.
  3. They say the virus survives for days on metal and some other surfaces.. so if I press soap out of a metal or plastic dispenser, must i then wash said dispenser as well? Or is that level of intricate cleanliness called lunacy?
  4. When they say to wipe down surfaces regularly, do they mean with a regular cloth or alcohol wipes? Do wet / alcohol wipes actually work? Should we care about being eco-friendly at this point? Will washing the wiping cloth with soap in the name of sustainability get the virus out of it so it can be re-used?

Things to be grateful for:

  • food,
  • money,
  • health,
  • running water,
  • safe drinking water,
  • family,
  • friends,
  • safety and protection,
  • and every other blessing you can think of.
India - daily wage labourers and women
India - male daily wage labourer

The Vulnerable

More thoughts in a different direction – the poor people that exist in so many countries around the world, including my country – India. How are they supposed to survive a pandemic like this?

The national minimum wage in India was INR 176 ($2.37) in 2017 according to the (International Labour Organization) ILO and was projected to be 178 INR ($2.40) by the end of 2020 (source: Trading Economics). This amount is largely dependant on gender, location and caste.

If a lockdown is enforced, these workers won’t get this meagre sum of money. Forget panic buying, they won’t even be able to exist let alone survive, because surviving is what they are doing right now.

Spilt Milk

How can we justify spending INR 36 billion ($500 million) to build things like the Statue Of Unity and the Jesus statues (that got demolished within weeks)?

Couldn’t that money have been put towards a crisis like COVID-19? Am I missing something here?

This bit of news brought hope for me today. What can each of us do to help in this situation?

statue of unity, Gujarat, India