Two young girls in the National Capital lost their parents, while undergoing Covid treatment in a hospital, in a gap of two days. On both occasions, their relatives turned their back on the desolate girls; it was their friends and colleagues who took charge of the last rites of the parents; it was again friends who took the hapless girls under their wings till they regained their composure. 

A middle aged man in Kerala, suffering from Covid, had a fall from the top floor of a building he lived. Not a single soul from the vicinity ventured out to rush him to the hospital. By the time police and volunteers came, it was too late. 

In a video of a funeral that went viral, one can see only the priest and a few volunteers present. The relatives and friends of the diseased seem to have done a vanishing act for fear of the tiny virus. Equally pathetic were the scenes of bodies strewn on the banks of Ganga or floating in the river as their relatives were unwilling to give them a decent funeral.

Such tales are galore. They stare at us, tossing a few searing questions: Who are our brothers and sisters? Who are our friends? Who are our neighbours? Has human relationship lost its soul? 

Probably the parable of the Good Samaritan would be the best answer to these queries. Here Jesus answers a lawyer, eager to know who his neighbour is, through the parable. The one who shows compassion and mercy is our neighbour. 

Covid time is replete with stories of those who have given a new definition to human relationship. It has opened our eyes. When the near and dear ones don’t give a damn to their own siblings and kith and kin, it is the ‘unknown neighbours’ who come to their rescue. 

It could be in finding a bed in hospitals; getting an oxygen cylinder; making medicines available; taking someone to a hospital; or making arrangements of the final journey of a deceased. Here the umbilical cord of human relationship finds a new meaning. 

Covid was only a trigger. People dumping their family members in hospices and old age homes has been in vogue for many years. People prefer to retreat to the cocoon of self-interest; they have become blind to the sufferings of others. 

Covid phobia has led people to get abusive, virtually and physically. However, one cannot miss the contrast, though they are few and far between. There are innumerable health workers – doctors, nurses and others – who have donned the mantle of saviours in this pandemic. Their tales of valour and compassion should go into the annals of history as inspiring role models. They exist like bubbles of hope.

The social media messages seeking help are indicative of the helplessness people feel in the midst of this pandemic. In some cases, it is the feeling of abandonment that forces them to knock at the ‘unknown doors’. Many are left to fend for themselves until a Good Samaritan comes to their rescue. One can understand the panic, but it cannot make people to treat the Covid-affected as outcasts and dump them like garbage.