Opinion | Coronavirus: We need social crusaders like my mother who saved me from TB in 1950s India

No doubt, the vast majority of people are observing these restrictions meticulously, even if under local government impositions. However, we also notice defiance by some people who either have “response fatigue” or are nonchalant about wearing masks or observing social distancing norms. Such defaulters can become super-spreaders.

Apart from imposing the rules, we also need to cajole and convince these people to become compliant by involving social crusaders who know the local conditions and whose words carry conviction.

I recall the strict social distancing imposed by Biji, my mother, at our home for a full two years after my father, whom I called Taaya, contracted tuberculosis. It was only relaxed on April 19, 1961 when he died at age 43, shrinking our small family of three to just the two. I was 14 years old.

Dejected at not being able to run his small family, he would spend months at an ashram called Ved Mandir at Amargarh, his place of birth, where he would learn traditional medicine and meditate. During all this, Taaya started losing his appetite and his weight dropped to just 37kg. He would also have bouts of coughing. Medical tests confirmed in early 1959 that he had TB. I believe he contracted it not so much from the smoking but because of malnutrition during prolonged periods of joblessness.

Already living with an uneasy sense of foreboding, Biji stoically geared up as a carer. Apart from getting Taaya treated with the drug streptomycin, Biji also had to make sure that she protected herself and me from the infection, using the only three weapons available – keeping distance from Taaya, covering the face while interacting with him, and maintaining good hygiene and sanitation.