Ugadi : New Year Prayers for end of COVID 19 Global Crisis

Ugadi ( Gudi Padwa) - New Year and the First Day of the 21 day National Lockdown : Will this be the Beginning of the end for the CORONA VIRUS (COVID 19) in India? I earnestly hope

Yesterday was the first day of the nationwide 21-day shutdown, announced by the Honourable Prime Minister, and this coincidentally also happened to be an auspicious new year day, celebrated as Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra and as Ugadi in Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. While announcing the national lockdown, during his second televised address to the nation on the COVID 19 pandemic that is raging across much of the world, the Honourable Prime Minister Modi ji, in his inimitable style of connecting with the people, used a crowd sourced poster to simplify the essence of national shutdown due to Corona by holding a poster, which read क़ो रो ना ( Corona) - कोयी - रोड़ पे - ना निकले (nobody should get on to the road).

Most parts of the country followed the clarion call given by the PM and  in Mumbai a city which never  sleeps, the streets of Mumbai, India’s largest metropolis, remained mostly empty, notwithstanding the fact that it was the new year : Gudi Padwa - a major festival for Maharashtra. Like most Indians holed up in homes, I too was glued to the news channels to ascertain what the response of the people will be. From various television news reports, I  could see shuttered shops, empty train tracks, closed airports, idle factories all across the country, meaning the shut down was largely successful barring some scenes of people rushing to grocery and vegetable shops for buying essential items. There were also few aberrations. In Kolkata a lady was shown arguing with the Police and resorting to a most atrocious act of licking the hands of the Police on duty and rubbing her mouth on his uniform. There were some scenes of people attacking the Police, who were doing their job of enforcing the law and in one case a Policeman has been seriously injured and admitted to the hospital. Notwithstanding the monumental problems in implementation of this national lock down, the Police were mostly seen exhibiting exemplary behaviour in trying to convince people to stay home and not to break the law. I was one among those 1 plus billion people, who abided by the law and remained at home in our staff quarters in worli.

My first day of the lockdown at home, which incidentally was the  Ugadi / Gudi Padwa  day - a New Year - began with a diktat from my wife, who first refused to entertain my request for a morning coffee and insisted that I take oil bath with neem leaves mixed in water and join her in doing the Ugadi Puja. She also urged me to get some neem leaves and neem flowers, which were to be used for the Ugadi Puja. We are among those few lucky ones who are staying in office quarters in worli in a lush green campus of 12 acres with lots of trees and plants including neem trees. Neem leaves are used in preparation of a special culinary that is prepared during the Ugadi festival and is offered as prasad to the family God during the Ugadi Puja. Ugadi, is an auspicious New Year’s Day for us, Kannadigas, and so also for others in the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. Since my childhood days I am privy to the oil bath and other rituals followed during Ugadi in which neem leaves are mixed with water that is to be used for morning bath, prior to the puja and white flowers of the neem tree, which are used for preparing a special Ugadi cuisine ‘Bevu Bella’ - a mixture of neem flowers, crushed leaves and jaggery with mixture of other ingredients and some other condiments. Though not a religious person, I support my wife in the pujas - who dare not to, not even the former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. Moreover, this year I voluntarily and with full faith took part in the puja and my primary prayers for the almighty was that the auspicious new year Ugadi be the beginning of an end to the dreaded Corona Virus (COVID 19) scourge, which has rampaged the world and is continuing to do so at exponential pace. I hope,  not just mine and my wife’s prayers but also the prayers of all humanity, which is suffering across the globe who are uniting in this suffering, is answered and by the end of the 21 national lockdown we will see the results of the end of the pandemic starts kicking in. Until then all we need to do is have trust in our leaders and all those untiringly working Corona Rakshaks (warriors), who are trying to battle it out even as our immune system, which is ordained to take on such lethal viruses has not been able to combat them effectively. 

This Ugadi is the beginning of the New Year 2077 of the Vikram Samvat (calendar) and also the beginning of the 21 days of our national lockdown for combating the global enemy, Corona Virus (COVID 19). By now it is universally well known that there are no vaccines or medicines or any other medical curative measures to contain this deadly virus, except for social isolation. COVID 19 is a global health crisis in which even the most developed countries with the best of health infrastructure are facing the worst of casualties. The epicentre of the disease  has now shifted from China to European countries. There has been an unprecedented and exponential rate at which the number of COVID cases have been increasing day by day, particularly in highly developed countries with the best of medical facilities. Italy, Spain, USA are all suffering from COVID and have resorted to locking down their countries to contain its spread. Not even Prince Charles, has been spared from this deadly virus. Just yesterday it was widely reported that Prince Charles has tested positive. ‘Top Chef Masters’ winner of the world, Floyd Cardoz, a celebrated Indian American chef in New York City,  who made a huge impact on the international culinary world, was also tested for COVID 19 and yesterday after suffering for one week, Cardoz succumbed to the COVID 19. The situation has been the same in several countries and most world leaders are deeply distressed. A look at the global statistics of the Corona impact (Worldometers info)reveals that as of now (26th March, 13.30hrs) total number of confirmed COVID 19 cases are 4,72,527 with 21,304 deaths and China (81,285 cases and 3287 deaths), Italy (74,386 cases and 7503 deaths), USA ( 68489 cases and 1032 deaths) and Spain (49,515 cases and 3647 deaths) are showing unprecedented casualties. Iran and France too are not far behind with 3647 deaths and 1331 deaths respectively. 

Under such serious COVID 19 global crisis, the 21 days national lockdown and its adverse economic impact, including human sufferings, appears to be a just price to be paid by India. India has more than 1.3 billion people and we are densely populated with far higher number of people per square metres than any other country. And therefore any slip at this critical juncture, in trying to combat the pandemic with social isolation measures, will be too heavy a price to pay later, which cannot even be fathomed. India, as of today, is showing 678 confirmed cases with 13 deaths and these numbers in comparison with  most other countries are relatively less depressing but then we can’t be complacent and the national lockdown for 21 days is perhaps the only way forward in avoiding the Himalayan crisis, which countries like Italy, Spain and US are currently suffering. 

Hopefully, with prayers from a billion plus Indians, on the auspicious occasion of the Ugadi, and so also those extraordinary measures taken by the central and all the states and union territories, India will overcome the COVID 19 global crisis with as minimum a casualty as can be possible under such extreme pandemic crisis. This global crisis as it stands today, is more scary than the two world wars and for India this crisis and its social economic impact may be worse than the three major wars that independent India has fought against our enemies in 1962,1965 and 1971, the Kargil conflict and for that matter even the mass migration crisis, which the nation witnessed just after the Independence. I earnestly hope that all our Gudi Padwa / Ugadi prayers are answered. Though not a scientifically minded statement, I feel a billion plus prayers of a highly religious country like India, which has often been referred to as the leader of spirituality by world leaders, cannot and will not go unanswered by almighty or nature or whatever one calls the supreme force, which governs the nature that encompasses all humans and their current enemy - the Corona virus. 

Ugadi, the new year, is celebrated every year on the first day of the first Hindu calendar month ( Chaitra) of the 12 month cycle and it usually falls in the months of March or April of the Gregorian Calendar. Legend has it that the great king, Vikramaditya of Ujjain established the Vikrama Samvat era after defeating the Sakas. The Hindu calendar is one of the oldest calendar systems, which is based on the lunar revolutions and included adjustments (intercalation/extracalation) to solar reckoning. The word Calendar has its origin from the Roman word ‘Calends or Kalends’, meaning a method of distributing time into certain periods adopted for the purpose  of civil life. The current National Calendar of India is a formalized lunisolar calendar in which leap years coincide with those of the Gregorian calendar (Calendar Reform Committee, 1957). However, the initial epoch is the Saka Era, a traditional epoch of Indian chronology. The reformed Indian calendar, post independence, began with Saka Era 1879 AD, Caitra 1, which corresponds to 22nd March, 1957. 

The ‘Ugadi’ term originated from the Sanskrit word “Yugadi” where “Yuga” means  a new period  and “aadi” means the beginning. As per the Hindu calendar, Ugadi marks the beginning of a new year and it falls on the beginning of the Indian month of Chaitra. It is believed that Lord Brahma created the universe on this day and therefore this day is considered as one of the very auspicious days of the year. Ugadi also marks the commemoration of Chaitra Navratri, which leads up to Ram Navami, Lord Rama’s birthday, which is celebrated on Mahanavami (ninth day). Among other things, Ugadi is observed by drawing the traditional rangoli, decorating the house with mango leaves, buying new clothes and donating food or clothes to the poor and needy and also with special oil bath in which neem leaves are mixed with water, which was what I did yesterday. Let us all hope and once again pray that this Ugadi is special and that the prayers of not just Indians but all of humanity is answered and let this be the beginning of the end for the COVID 19, which has rampaged the globe. 

Once agin wishing my countrymen a very happy new year - Ugadi/ Gudi Padwa and hope that this crisis too will pass sooner than later until such time let us all continue to stand united lay behind all the Covid Rakshaks who are battling it out for us.

Jai Hind 

Image Credits

1. Chef Floyd - Hunger Inc Hospitality
2. Ugadi Pachhadi - Wiki Commons
3. Ugadi/Gudi Padwa Greetings - Getty Images
4. COVID 19 India Map - Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
5. Prince Charles - Wiki Commons

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++