People were used to complaining about a short time even though they had a long to-do-list, now have enough and more of time in their hands due to the COVID virus. Currently, our social media platforms have turned into an art festival stage as talents in quarantine have geared up to develop their artistic skills choosing COVID as a topic. Among the other such poems which released during this lockdown, Hollywood Director and poet Dr. Sohan Roy’s poem “COVID-19” stands out for its unique style of contents, music, and recitation. COVID-19, which was also written and recited by Sohan Roy, is gaining much recognition like wildfire. In just a few days from its release, the poem, with its English sub-titles and graphics, reached one million views on various social media. The poet’s imagination relates this COVID period to the “great world war.” Alongside, in contrast to the other COVID poems released on social media this season, Sohan Roy’s poem was a collective reflection of positive as well as negative experiences this great pandemic COVID has bestowed upon us. Through this poem, we can grasp how this universe, which is comprehensive of everything from grass blades to the stars, reacted in whispered tones to the silence when the uproars of the human race in dictatorial tone stood still at least for a moment.
Poet believes that the realization that even the atom, which is the minutest element in the universe, has the power to terrorize the world countries, including the significant superpowers, will help humans to eliminate the arrogance that earth revolves on their fingertips. This new version of the virus even came into existence by crumbling the iron fort of dictatorship, The Great Wall of China. Through this poem, we can see the picture of the “superpowers” with the ability to resist even the disaster sowing atom bombs, standing and staring helplessly at this virus crossing bounds and killing their own citizens.
The lines depict philosophy topped with a tinge of humor, which is the method in which the virus has cleansed our society. COVID-19 virus has now leashed harmful elements like air pollution, drug mafia, begging mafia, robber gangs to ventilators. When human influence shrinks to their burrows, who other than the virus will draw the picture of freely roaming beasts coming out of holes unafraid of humans? Ones who raced the share market bull to heights playing the guessing business, have toppled and now lie in the ditches. Here, we can also see ones who used to heal ailments of thousands and the human Gods who had claimed holiness choose self-isolation in fear of COVID virus, while their attendees stand watching them awestruck. Poet sees the exact description of God in health workers who retrieve as many as lives possible from the death Goddess. The poem also puts forward a plea asking not to include “virus tactics” in the new economic war artilleries and eradicate the human race. In different scenarios, a virus had to come forward and make men think beyond cast and creed and teach humans the meaninglessness in meaningfulness. This has brought about insights beyond measure to the readers. In the end, the poet reminds us that it was this pandemic that gave people a chance to soothingly blend into the coziness of their family at last, other than being jailed by the many busy work schedules of life. The poem ends on a sensible and philosophical question of whether COVID has to be judged as the God or the devil when we analyze the various practical lessons COVID nurtured humankind with. Like this, alongside viewing this pandemic from every possible viewpoint through the lyrics, the crew was also successful in using most suitable graphical representations to flawlessly decipher the poem’s essence to readers. And that must be the reason why this poem gained much more public acceptance than the other verses, which got released on social media around the same time regarding this topic.
Sohan Roy is also the author of numerous other poems that have successfully created a buzz on social media platforms. The poem “Asifa’s Heaven,” he authored, soaked the whole of Kerala’s poem appreciators in tears. The eight-year-old tender girl who passed away after being gruesomely raped by a gang of barbarians was the poem’s concept. Similarly, lyrics on various topics like India’s heroic son “Abhinandan,” tribal lad Madhu who was stamped a thief for merely stealing to curb his hunger, etc. were widely viewed and discussed by lakhs of people on social media. After penning down short impromptu poems based on current events and posting them on social media, he incorporated elements of epic poetry. He published the book “Anumahavakavyam,” which was released at the Soorya festival last year by famed lyricist and poet Sreekumaran Thampi. The composition and background music of the poem “COVID-19” was done by the famous and eminent music director, B.R Bijuram.
