Badminton and A Hospital Emergency [Diary Recollection]

(June 2021)

Had a rather unnerving experience yesterday.

Someone in our building required an ambulance rush to the hospital yesterday. When the ambulance arrived and the gentleman was being lifted in on a stretcher, there was a badminton game going on right alongside. (That in itself is a bit of an issue because the chaps don't wear masks, but this post is about something else.)

What is the bare minimum one would expect? That the game stop for a few minutes and the players ask if any help might be required? From a distance if need be since there is an emphasis on distancing presently? Fair enough?

Nope. The game didn't skip a beat. They even kept up with keeping the score. 8-5, 6-8, 9-6, ... Right next to a person from their own residential building being stretchered into an ambulance!

It was as if the people playing just didn't care!

Me and my sister happened to hear the ambulance come in, so we went down to help the best we could. Fortunately, the patient stabilized nicely over the night and is doing fine now.

Our family struggled to find context for this kind of impersonal coldness. We have lived in different parts of the country. I have lived outside the country for a while as well. This was unheard of just about a decade ago!

Isn't this tendency of "It's all about me!" growing over the last 8-10 years?

Why is that?

Are parents not imparting even basic values at home anymore? And schools? Are they imparting a value based education? Or is it just Physics, Chemistry, Maths, History and Geography?

If me or my sister behaved like this when we were growing up, we would been put through some days of community service at the very least before we saw any pocket money again 😁. Now these are Covid times: so I wouldn't suggest taking any risks right now. But I guess the general point I'm making is clear?

We have to sort this out.

We are losing basic community spirit, people are living more and more as isolated islands, there are many scenarios in which even family members aren't "there" for each other.

This isn't movement in the right direction.