I remember reading a column in a major US newspaper, hours after the 9/11 attack that massacred thousands. It started with “Bastard. You unmitigated bastard.”
The same tone grips my pen as I write this article. An article that I am not proud to produce. An article I am simply compelled to write. I am ashamed. I am infuriated. A vitriolic emesis that may not be tempered by literary restraints. Allow me to be cut and dry and deal with facts. For facts won’t lie.
Soumitra Chatterjee, is presently in Belle Vue nursing home, battling COVID. In bated breath and undivided attention, audience worldwide, watch his indomitable fight the way they would watch his cinematic performance of effortless power and finesse. For someone who has hogged the limelight and controlled the nations’ emotions (and still continues to do so) in seamless talent for nearly half a century, the concern isn’t unexpected. The nations’ eyelashes are on hold. Justifiably.
But this is exactly here, where we crossed the line of our elemental decency (if ever there was a line in India that existed!). In unabashed shamelessness and rusticity.
Debates raged as to why he contacted the virus in the first place. What went wrong? Who was to blame? Why was he exposed? Was he callous? Was the family negligent? Judgements flew, at once harsh and dangerous. Completely oblivious of a family sunk in deep shock and agony. Worse followed as he entered the health facility.
His every breath got measured and publicly announced. His vital signs got followed and pursued. His urine output, his liver, kidneys, gastrointestinal contents, all had to be announced in medical bulletins. In gory details. Why? Presumably to thwart a raging crowd baying for his health.
Death news circulated the moment news leaked of his momentary lapse of consciousness. Obituaries got written. A hunger for a perverted visibility took the center-stage. A mob mentality impersonating human emotions trampled ruthlessly over the actor and his family’s privacy and dignity.
And when we thought things cannot get lower, we actually got lower. Mr. Chatterjee’s picture (sham or real) in Intensive Care Unit got circulated. For our eyes to feast, for our emotions to be fed.
As a doctor myself, and more importantly, as a human who had the good fortune to have come across his immeasurable sense of humanity, I am ashamed to witness such dastardly display of crudity.
We pray for Soumitra Chatterjee’s recovery.
When he reverts and returns, we will let him know how we missed him. We will also profusely apologize for our utter lack of sense and sensibility to honor his dignity and esteem.
