What if this really happened? 🙄

Year-1989. This was the city which never slept-Bombay.Maharani woke up hurriedly (name given to her at birth by her dadi) since she was already late than the other mornings. Had to get ready for work and pack lunch for both herself & husband. Papa -she called him by that name, was busy finishing up the morning chai with his parents who were visiting the relatively newly married couple (three years yet to be completed). The genuinely nice and kind inlaws who were enjoying their post retirement phase ,were getting a little wary about their only son and the lovely Rani’s ( shortened from Maharani) impassiveness in moving the family forward. The MIL had lovingly thrown in some hints which went completely unheeded by the couple. The exasperated dad suggested one day to the mom “ What if the Covid Vaccine is the root cause? Remember, there was once a rumor suggesting that the Covid vaccines resulted in impotency in males?” The MIL was furious! She squeaked and reminded the dad that the current year in which they were in was 1989. “ Remember, we struggled with Covid in 2020-2021; Got the vax then. Let’s not talk about those days. But what a tremendous job the scientists did & got the vaccines out & saved humanity from washing out! Can’t thank them enough!! But Papa was an infant & didn’t get a vax back then. So now that logic doesn’t hold!!”

“Aaaah true!! Well then, so be it.Let us not get so worked up! Let us wait and we shall hear some happy news in the due course of time ” ❤️❤️👍

On the other side of the globe, the two post doctorates from Raja Bazaar Science College, Kolkata, started their first assignments in Dr Ash’s Cancer lab in North Carolina . This homesick ‘husband – wife’ duo were dedicated researchers, but were missing their ailing parents who were back home in India. The steep prices of the international phone calls,made it even more difficult for a daily communication ; let alone enjoying the luxury of catching the glimpses of their faces and talking to them at the same time!! The couple lamented between themselves & only wished that they had belonged to the “Pre-Post Covid Era” – i.e the term popularly given to the Covid Era of The Millennium!They had heard about numerous stories of how the entire world came so close with the help of technology namely “Zoom Calls”, “Whatsapp Calls”, “Telegrams”, “ “Google Meet” and many more from their parents. Only if all those existed in the current era. Ugh! wishful thinking! Only if the current year 1989 could be “REWOUND “ to 2020-2021!! Sigh!

Same era. Same year.Different location. Preparations were in full swing for a nuptial rendezvous between a prospective bride and groom in a small town-near the suburbs of Kolkata overseeing the Hoogly river. Parents had already met and approved of the alliance. The wedding was now on the balance beam waiting for the final approval from the prospective groom. Since morning,a ruckus broke out in this Sarkar household – the prospective bride – Labonno had broken out into freckles all over her face specially on the cheeks and chin! Her mother was positive that this could have been the result of her recent unhealthy eating habits intensified by the use of the ‘fairness cream’ which they got from the nearby local shop. Her mother was intensely anxious that the groom who worked in a MNC in Hyderabad was looking for a partially fair,moderately good looking match,might get dispirited looking at Labonno in her “ Not So Glorious Fair Best” and end up canceling the alliance all together. All the aunts, cousins brainstormed.For what!-you might be wondering!To find the best possible solution to metamorphose “ Freckled, (UN)appealing Labonno to the gorgeous prospective bride! Alas ! It seemed all plans were about to fall flat- totally!! Jharna mashi ( a neighbor) and Labonno ‘s mom were very apprehensive.They discussed that only if it was their times i.e. back in 2020-2021;probably they could have atleast tried to tackle the current predicament with the help of a “Mask” like they had done during Covid. Well of course not with N95 mask , but only if they had forseen this they could have saved some of their fancy ones for use, some thirty odd years “earlier”!Only if they had been a crystal grazer in 2021!

What is the common thread tying the three silo narratives cited here ?

The question-Only If -the calendar year could be switched back from 1989 to 2021!!

Wait a minute!! 1989 to 2021 – how can this be switched back?- You might be wondering that this could be the result of the delusional state that the narrator might be in !🙄🙄👏

Well the answer is -No;the narrator is not delusional.In the very beginning,she had already sought permission to start the narration with a bolded highlighted hypothetical question:-What if?

What if all these had actually happened i.e. time went backwards instead of pacing forward? Would that have served humanity well if in reality civilization regressed in all literal senses? Phew!!!

Surely ,it would have been a Covid Free world, but at the same time there would have been even lesser scopes to demolish the misconconceptions surrounding vaccines.

One relevant example being, the Covid Vaccines could lead to potential incapability to father a child would not have had the chance to be demolished. This simply implied it would make way for an even darker, ignorant mindset backed with no scientific evidence to be deeply rooted inside the psyche of the Humans, thereby making that more detrimental for the society.

The miraculous advancement of science brought the entire world so close virtually through Zoom, Cloud meets ,etc bridging the vast gap of distance over the continents, oceans and countries . We Humans had accepted this phenomenonal advancement as a “right of life”bestowed on human kind. Such a regression in real life would have shattered Human’s arrogant way of life approach. We would have then realized the harsh reality of living in a foreign land far away from our own kin, and not being able to communicate with the dear ones at every possible convenience.

Covid taught us how to hide the ugly scars on our faces (figuretively & literally)behind the masks. On regression , much to our chagrin masks being off, the Humans would be exposed – in their hideous self!!!!!!!

Before this truly What If takes shape out of the narrator’s mind in the real world, isn’t it time we collectively rise up to the occasion,join hands and stop the regression from happening?

Let us all “Strive for progress and not perfection” & “Progress is impossible without change ; & those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”