Communication has been proved the best weapon against Coronavirus till now. When it started, the sense was, it has nothing to do with us. We thought it was China-centric and blamed it on their eccentric habits.
But then it became real.
All agencies, from Government to corporates got into the act. But yet the common people had a feeling that only those who went abroad would be affected: Rich men's disease, they called it.
So, it was important to press the need of social distancing and sanitising. While the government communication was effective, it was mundane.
Our folk artists gave the message a boost with their traditional art forms.
I came across a performance video of Patachitra artist Swarna Chitrakar. Patachitra means: A sstory on the cloth canvas. It is a scroll with the story depicted on it. And the artist sings and narrates it to the audience. A great audio-visual medium with human interaction.
These Patachitra focus on stories from Indian mythologies. Swarna used the same technique and converted the Coronavirus into a Daanav, a red devil!
And she sang the message with such passion that even if we don't understand her language we feel it.
To me, it is the most genuine message about Coronavirus awareness.
