To 'SARS' with love

''SARS'' to the right of us, ''wars'' to the left of us... and a Vivek-Ash-Salman outbreak in between. What a life. Never a dull moment, unless you''re watching one of the several newly-launched TV channels.
"It is here to stay," said Dr Jim Hughes of Singapore, referring to the deadly SARS virus. It''s safe to say, the other two equally deadly afflictions are here to stay, in some mutilated form or the other, as well.But as of now, practically anything and everything can be linked to SARS — including the incredible Infosys crash. And to think I went straight into the heart of SARS territory just as the epidemic was breaking. And have actually survived (so far) to tell the tale.
"Don''t go," pleaded my sister from New York, when she found out I was leaving for Hong Kong. "Don''t be ridiculous," I replied jauntily. "I''m not American, what''s a few bugs in the atmosphere? We breath foul air all the time in Mumbai. Besides, a commitment is a commitment. One doesn''t cancel on flimsy pretexts."
The first small doubt arose at the airport itself, as one of the grateful organisers of the Hong Kong Literary Festival congratulated me for displaying exemplary courage.
"Several writers from across the world have cancelled their trip," I was told. I continued to joke about the time foreign tourists overflew Mumbai because of the so-called plague in Surat.
The organiser laughed nervously and reached for a mask. The panic button had just been pressed in Hong Kong and locals were readying themselves for the battle ahead. An official spin doctor had gone into overdrive, issuing hourly updates and reassuring citizens that everything was under control. At the same time, there was an aggressive info-campaign, telling people how to protect themselves.
And nobody, but nobody, was taking any of this lightly. Except foolish, ignorant me. Masks?? Are you crazy, I scoffed. We Indians enjoy incredible levels of natural in-built immunity. Our constitutions have been toughened over centuries. ''Flu? Come on, we deal with it on a daily basis. Walk into any office. No, attend any conference/concert, and you''ll hear more coughing than clapping. Nobody stays home because of the ''flu.
But with each passing day, I noticed more and more people diligently wearing masks or staying home. And most public places looked semi-deserted. Gosh, how they over-react, I thought to myself, a trifle smugly. In India, we take disease and mini-epidemics for granted, in our stride. We cope, we shrug, people die. Life carries on.
By the time I left Hong Kong, a week later, I''d changed my views radically. At that time, the death toll was not even 20. And no more than 300-odd people had been diagnosed as carriers of the SARS virus. But the entire government machinery had been mobilised to ensure that the disease was contained. Sensitising the public was just one of the several steps taken. The war against SARS was being fought on a military footing.
The only people displaying a casual attitude to the outbreak in Hong Kong were local Indians. It was as if they genuinely believed SARS would leave them alone and attack the others. No precautions. No fear.
Today, when I look back, I realise how idiotically and irresponsibly I''d behaved, undertaking avoidable excursions into over-crowded Kowloon, for instance, imagining all the while that same benign god would protect me.
In less than a month, two wars (SARS and Iraq), broke out and are virtually over. The third one (Vivek-Ash-Salman) has just begun. Any vaccine to protest us from it?