Roti, kapada, makaan and now daaru: the priorities of an average Indian

The first day of relaxations in standalone shops led to chaos in India. As if an animal was set free from its cage, public from around the country were out on the streets, forming lines that ranged from small to unbelievable.

However, more than that, the talking point was that many of these lines were because of the public’s need to get alcohol from standalone shops.

As is the case with the rest of the world, India’s ties with alcohol run deep. The usage varies from moments of agony to ecstasy and often the resulting public state isn’t great.

However, the visuals that emerged from the streets on Monday ranged from hilarious to worrisome.

The common factor was a complete lack of care in maintaining social distancing norms, in several places. There has been a theory that people not coming in close contact with one another in the last 40 days has ensured India’s cases are not as high as other countries, although increased testing could depict a fully different story. But Monday was anything but that.

Many questions emerged from what we saw on Monday, but few of those would probably topple the rest: Why should the behaviour of such kind from the average Indian surprise anyone anymore? Why should such incidents be a top Twitter trend for many an hour?

This isn’t the first time this side to the public’s psyche has come out openly and there is a good chance it won’t be the last, either.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi requested the nation to show their appreciation on the day of Janta Curfew, it exploded into a celebration, as if the guests in marriage were held hostage and let go at the fag end of it.

When he urged the nation again to shower praise on those forced to be outside for a lack of option by lighting a lamp, Indians showed they could go one step forward.

They brought out the torches and in clumps marched onto the roads as if someone had told them it was a mark of solidarity.

In both cases, the motive behind the government’s plea was forgotten. On Monday, even though it wasn’t against rules, there was further evidence of what could happen when Indians are set free.

While the first two lockdowns were accepted by the public as cautionary measures for the pandemic, the third one did bring up the thought of ‘how many more of these?’ in a few sections. Partly because livelihood had to take some precedence, partly because at some point, life had to move on as it did before the 24th of March.

But the incidents of Monday should be another reminder of why for this particular reason, the government must be wary of lifting the lockdown fully. That Indians were social animals was known, but what wasn’t known was that they would disregard the enormity of the present situation and still let their urges comprehensively beat their resistance.

The worrying aspect of the events was that there wasn’t a trace of the public crowding in other places like book shops.

Either that or Indian reporters were ordered to focus on the public’s reaction to opening alcohol shops, no one knows.

What is clear though with the pandemic growing like it is in India, the frustration of those residing at home is increasing with it. Sadly, the emotion of that growing annoyance is coming out the wrong way, time after time.