No words to capture this horror

In these ominous times of the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic, we seem to have run out of words to effectively depict this unfolding catastrophe. Journalists, writers, television anchors, world leaders, politicians and others struggle with inadequate superlatives like apocalyptic, disastrous, devastating, unprecedented, extraordinary, unique, unmatched, et al, in an attempt to portray the enduring nightmare.

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But regrettably, all these descriptions remain feeble in expressing what we all face now, and in the future with regard to the inestimable human, economic and social havoc the virus is wreaking and will eventually end up inflicting. Even the simple noun ‘crisis’, ironically derived from the Latin form of the Greek word ‘krisis’, literally meaning ‘turning point in a disease’, simply does not encapsulate the situation. Which of the above words, for instance, is even remotely apposite in depicting the plight of migrant workers, hopelessly trudging hundreds of kilometres home; or videos on news channels and social media of jobless urban daily wagers competing with one another to rifle through rotting garbage for scraps to eat?

What simile does one employ to define tens of lakhs of people waiting listlessly in cities, towns and villages across India for the local langar lorry, which most instinctively know is unlikely to arrive? But sadly and with no option, they still inertly linger, before falling into a ravenous stupor.

And, what verbal wizardry does one undertake to plumb the unfathomable terror of virus victims alone in neon-lit impersonal hospital wards, surrounded by overburdened medical staff? And how does anyone depict their dread, as they stare into the hopelessness in their attendants’ veiled eyes, as life ebbs from their lungs?

Or what literary gymnastics does one resort to, to convey the pathos surrounding the impersonal cremation of coronavirus-ravaged bodies around the country? In most such instances, there are no relatives or friends to conduct cremations, as most are either unable to be there due to the lockdown, or simply too terrified to come near a body consumed by the virus.

How does one illustrate the reality that today, virtually everyone around each one of us is a potential enemy, as they could be a passive or active transmitter? This includes grandparents, parents, siblings, children, grandchildren, friends, household help and everyone else in our immediate vicinity, not to mention the hordes of people we encounter in our daily lives.

How on earth can we possibly verbalise the imminent financial Armageddon guaranteed by the virus, indisputably certain to beggar almost the entire world? Is there any suitable lingo to capture this impending chaos which in India is almost certain to lead to social unrest?

In short, words simply fail us all in defining the prodigious calamity we are experiencing in a near hopeless situation. Or put more aptly in Latin: deficient verba mea in statu desperato.