Between September 2019 and March 2020, a lot of things have happened in India and around the world. September 2019 was when people acquainted themselves with a certain 13-year-old named Greta Thunberg, who bravely asked 'How dare you' to all the world's leaders for their inaction towards climate change. People ridiculed her and one (now ex) leader even asked her to laugh it off and go watch a movie.
Cut to March 2020. We were introduced to a pandemic. The speed of its spread put the Australian bushfire to shame. With a large population and thick population density, India struggled to contain it, despite imposing a stringent lockdown. Now, this had exposed the country to two major problems —climate change and the Coronavirus. The solution, however, was quite simple.
Humans had to put their extroversion, craze for long drives and wanderlust goals to rest.
Instead, they needed to stay inside their houses and step out only when necessary. Now, what better way to do it than making sure that they cannot afford to drive their vehicles? The masterstroke lay in making the fuel so expensive that petrol pumps around the country even accept kidneys as modes of payment. That, my friends, is exactly what is happening in our country.
On April 1, 2020, when the first phase of lockdown was in place, a Mumbai resident paid Rs 76.31 for a litre of petrol. A few days ago, they paid Rs 90 for the same amount of fuel. Now any mathematically inclined person can notice that the rise in COVID cases is inversely proportional to the rise in petrol prices. So, at a point like this, we should not blame our government, rather one could always take those utensils that you took out on March 21, clap them again and thank them for keeping us safe, in our homes, because we can't afford to go out.
In fact, Greta Thunberg must also get a pair of these steel 'bartans' and thank India for being one of those few countries that are working constantly to cut down its people's Carbon footprints. I am now waiting for petrol to cost Rs 100 a litre and see the ghost of Louis Amstrong sing What a wonderful world on a Diwali day, looking at NASA's annual image of India from outer space.
