Thiruvananthapuram: Now in Kerala, things have reached a stage where everything boils down to life and living safely, and there has been no whimper of protest from anyone when the state government announced that there would be no assembly of people even in the religious places in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.
Incidentally, as things stand now, one of the biggest assembly of people that is now allowed is a maximum of 30 and it’s not at the religious places, but the queues in front of the state run liquor and beer retail outlets.
Ever since, Kerala in the month of January registered the first coronavirus positive case in the country, the general population went into a sort of concern as news started to trickle from across the globe that things are not rosy.
But things went haywire, especially in Europe, where a huge Kerala population resides and with the social media taking over and news of deaths being reported from these countries, many here went into a shell.
Today in Kerala there are over 18,000 people in observation and 24 positive cases so far. With the state government taking up the mantle of containing the spread of COVID-19, and enforcing strict guidelines to curb even the normal religious activities, there has been no protest from anyone.
The first establishment to come out with a guideline were the administrators of the famed Sabarimala temple, that asked its devotees to avoid visiting the temple, when it opens for its monthly pujas.
The guidelines were accepted, with a very few turning up as compared to earlier months, which this temple town witnessed in the 2018 season, when angry devotees took over the temple town, after the apex court ruled that women of all ages can enter the temple.
Likewise in the Christian community, the scene today is that the otherwise normally crowded 50 day lent period that ends with the Easter that falls on April 12, several Churches have come out with an advisory to curb and curtail, all the activities associated with the holy mass. As a result, there are only a few who are going to the church.
Similarly, the number of people turning up in mosques also has come down drastically.
In short, for a change the people in Kerala have realised that traditions, customs, cultures associated with all religions are man made and when the need arises, especially, if it threaten the very life, all such things can be temporarily put on hold, as ‘everything boils down to life and living’.
