17 July 2120. I will never forget this date – that is until they wipe out my memory and recharge me, which is a kind of routine for all of us. This was the day which changed my career, it gave a new direction to my life. It made me what I never thought I would be one day.
This post has been published by me as a part of Blog-a-Ton 59; the fifty-ninth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. In association with IndiCreator. For Creators. By Creators.. Share Your #LockdownTales at indicreator.com
To begin with, there was a joint call from DepHeal and DepFam. Well, if by any chance you are from the last century, DepHeal is Department of Health and DepFam is Department of Family. Again, such a joint call is a yearly routine. So, I was not at all alarmed. What floored me was that they told me that Shanti (my great grandmother) was coming home and that too with immediate effect. In fact, they were not waiting for me to pick her up, but were to drop her home in twenty minutes. They did not need that much time to travel 300 kilometers, they were just giving me time to prepare.
Please, do not take me wrong. I like Shanti. To be with her for a day or two is always a fun. She makes me laugh a lot; and she never bores me with the instructions of what I should be doing and what I should not be doing. She shares some of her life experiences – which are more like a fiction, I guess. The resource material that we have does not at all corroborate what she believes as the truth.
But that is natural. Afterall she is 157 years old and she was born and brought up in 20th Century. She is rather independent, and I do not have to look after her. She is not ill. But now all old people (more than 150 years) have to stay in the government HoLCa (that is Home-Like-Care). Once in six months they are supposed to visit their family. That visit had just happened last month and so this call surprised me.
But that is natural. Afterall she is 157 years old and she was born and brought up in 20th Century. She is rather independent, and I do not have to look after her. She is not ill. But now all old people (more than 150 years) have to stay in the government HoLCa (that is Home-Like-Care). Once in six months they are supposed to visit their family. That visit had just happened last month and so this call surprised me.
By the way, I am Ganesh (right, named after a Mythological God in the area which was called India in the past) and I am 12. I am doing postdoc research in Virology.
The SecGd (Security Guards) team dropped Shanti and made me sign (electronically of course, I cannot write with my hands as Shanti can do!) a document. “Why is this unscheduled drop?” I asked. They did not answer. “When are you going to pick up her again?” They ignored me. “Is she kicked out of HoLCa?” I asked. “Check your email. All the details are there. If you find any change in her health status, alert us immediately” one of them responded sharply and they were gone in an instant.
I turned to Shanti. She was calm and smiling. “Did you play any mischief again at HoLCa?” I asked.
“Nope”, her eyes twinkled. “I am going to tell you something very shocking, so sit down,” she said. “Are you in love again?” I was starting to worry about her calmness, sure sign of a mischief.
“Ah, my falling in love still shocks you! You are incorrigible. But that is not what I am going to tell you,” Shanti said mysteriously. I was relieved. It must be some story from her past.
“Is there any news in your field of Virology?” Shanti asked. She was always interested in Virology but why is she asking about it after she is suddenly dropped by SecGd?
“Well, you know, there is a new Corona virus emerging from area that was once called China,” she whispered. “Come on Shanti, you know Science has won over the chain of Corona viruses long back. The last known virus came in 2019 and the United World won the war against that virus. Only 26 people died even then and just 1000 had to be hospitalized all over the world. Even in 2020, Corona virus was not a threat. It was a minor flue at the most.” I was happy to explain my favorite topic.
Shanti was stunned. “Where did you get those numbers regarding Corona virus in 2019-20?” she demanded. “Oh, it is everywhere," I showed her online resources.
She was shocked. Her face became pale, she was trembling, tears rolling from her eyes. That was something I had never seen Shanti to be in. What just happened? What did I say or do wrong? Has it triggered some bad memory for her?
We were silent for couple of minutes – which felt like years. I do not know what to say when people give emotional reaction to scientific facts. And why should somebody feel something about a minor incident about a hundred years ago? Did her husband die then? Was he the one amongst the 26 people died? I did not know. I went forward and touched her shoulder from a distance. You know, we avoid human contact as much as possible, but the old guards like human contact.
Slowly Shanti became calm. She looked at me and said, “Ganesh, I respect you. You are an intelligent boy. I do not want to comment on the EduSys (Education System) you thrive on. I don’t know how to tell you but your information about Corona virus in 2019 is completely wrong.”
“What do you mean by wrong? I just showed you references,” I was bit irritated with her now.
Shanti took some time. She took a deep breath. She said, “It is not your fault. The disastrous truth is hidden from all of you very shrewdly and systematically. The truth is replaced by misinformation. In India, where I lived then, we had more than 150 days of #Lockdown. People not only died of Corona, but the economy too died with unplanned and extended series of #Lockdown. There were twenty million affected by Corona virus in the world in 2020 and about a million people died.”
I started laughing. “Shanti, you are funny. But tell me what happened at HoLCa? Why are you dropped here? When are you going back?”
“Two persons died in my HoLCa unit yesterday morning. And their symptoms of breathlessness made me suspect that it was another strain of Novel Corona Virus. One of them had just returned from Wuhan after home visit. You know Wuhan was earlier in the country called China, from where 2019 Corona virus (and some of the earlier viruses) emerged. This man was showing something to the other person on his tablet and the other person had touched the tablet. Moreover, more people developed fever and some lost sense of smell and touch – all this happening within hours. They tested all of us and sent many of us to our homes. There is a #Lockdown at HoLCa. We don’t know how long it will be as we don’t know how many people are infected by this new virus.”
Just to show Shanti that she was imagining something, I opened HoLCa website. Wow, it was closed ‘for maintenance’. This was the first time I have seen HoLCa site closed. I tried to access DepHeal and was surprised to see that access was open ‘only to officials'. DepFam and SegGd websites showed no unusual messages or activities.
I checked with my friends. Sure, everybody’s HoLCa member was dropped home this morning, without any adequate explanation. Everybody thought that it happened only to them and did not check with others.
I was thrilled. Something strange was indeed happening. Is it possible that Shanti is right about the new virus? Is she right about the Corona 2019-20 virus information hidden from the public? Do some people still have the access to it? I needed to check the facts before I could take on the more detailed investigation.
“Do you have some information from 2020, Shanti?” I asked.
She pulled out a small, thin metal stick from her inner pocket. “Do you know how to extract information from this device?” she asked. I did not. But it took me just fifteen minutes to access the information. It seems that hundred years ago they used this device called pen drive or stick to store information. Shanti had saved this one and somehow had managed to keep her secret. How she did it, I will have to ask her another time. Because the information I see on her drive is shocking and shattering.
For example, look at this site exactly one hundred years ago:
The country called India, where Shanti lived was in a bad shape as well. I can imagine why it stunned her when I said ‘only 26 people died because of Corona Virus 2019’.
“And this was just the middle of the pandemic that you see the data of”, Shanti added. “It took another two years for the world to overcome Corona virus and that too with lot of cost. It is true that we won the war against Corona Virus, but many lives were lost, many lives were destroyed, many were forced to commit suicide. The inequalities and the exclusion in the entire world was as if opened by the Corona virus. It was one of the worst time I have lived through. We would never want to live it again. Even my enemies should not suffer from such a deadly virus. If we indeed have the new strain of the same virus, I am sure Government will declare #Lockdown again, keep on extending it, reducing whatever social interaction we have and hiding information about people in distress.”
“Ganesh, I want your generation to come out of the misinformation loop. If it is a new strain of Corona virus which has killed my colleagues at HoLCa, we are due for another disaster. We need to learn lessons from past generations, past experiences. The World Government will try to hide the information – because after last century disaster, the politician had to face people’s wrath. I know you are very young. But you are not alone. We are many… on the right path, where everybody is treated with respect and dignity.” Shanti went on.
“What do you mean by ‘We’?” I was suspicious. I remember that my parents never liked me to have a good relationship with Shanti. Was she trying to allure me towards something bad? But my parents are complete moron. Both of them are high level Government officials. They want me to give up my interest in Virology. But I never followed their orders. I believe that the right path has less travelers. So be it.
Shanti was smiling again. “We are group of people who deal with misinformation and exploitation related to it. We call ourselves InTru - Investigators of Truth. We make people aware of the truth, collaborate and advocate with policy makers insisting that they share the truth and address the real issues. Would you like to join us? We are old. We badly need young techno-savy people like you. I assure you that saving people from misinformation is as vital as saving them from virus. The choice is yours my boy!”
Of course, I was wise enough not to instantly fall for Shanti’s appeal. Old people are sometimes Utopian. They also want to fulfill their dreams through us. We can’t allow others to dominate our life like that.
I talked to my friends. We checked. We hacked. We cracked websites. We went to libraries. We checked old newspapers (by the way they were printed on papers!!). We discussed. We challenged each other. We prepared ‘Worst Case Scenarios’ and we developed strategies to address various challenges. We had to build security measures around us.
I am sorry to give up Virology. It is kept in #Lokdown. Now I am an InTru. We are going to shake this power structure (which by the way is based on exclusion, inequality, exploitation etc) and make the world better so that nobody is left behind.
If you are interested in joining InTru, you are most welcome. A secret code is embedded in this post. Crack the code and join the most needed rebellion today.
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