The Sunday Mail
Last week, I was taken aback when I saw an onion-shaped former dancing queen, whose skin had an inexplicable variegated colour courtesy of the banned skin-lightening creams, selling vegetables at some street corner in Rugare.
Occasionally fanning herself with her hands and twiddling her fingers on her phone, all the while irritatingly smacking her lips while endlessly chewing gum, she cut a pale shadow of her former self.
Her colourful outfits are a painful reminder of the star she once was before the world was turned upside down by the coronavirus.
“Bhudhi, things have changed. The bars have closed and we no longer have a source of income. Our group has disbanded, as members are looking for something to put food on the table. It’s been over a year now since we held shows, so things are really bad, but we do not blame anyone.
“All will be well in God’s time, but for now I have to make sure I sell these vegetables to survive,” she said with a wry smile.
The bow-legged ex-raunchy dancer said she was lucky her parents have a home.
“This lockdown came without warning. We never thought things would end up like this, but I thank God because at least I am alive. We want the authorities to continue ensuring people remain safe because this pandemic is dangerous,” she continued.
She is not the only person who has been affected by the lockdown.
Most people in the arts sector are singing the blues.
Some have changed the trade altogether and are now into farming and trading.
Most artistes have never staged shows since the lockdown was announced in March last year.
“Once you are a father, you remain one and have to continue fending for the family and paying school fees. We have not staged any shows since the lockdown but we still need to eat, and that is why we had to dump the guitars for something else,” said one artiste who spoke on condition of anonymity.
One famous keyboardist is now using his jalopy as a convenient cab to ply the Avondale-Parirenyatwa route in order to make ends meet.
But it is better safe than sorry.
The disaster that has befallen India, which is currently in the throes of a third wave of the pandemic, cannot be wished on anyone.
Recent statistics show that about 4 000 people are dying from coronavirus every day in India, and the death toll has ballooned to almost 250 000.
Early this week, bodies of at least 40 people reportedly washed up on the banks of Ganges River in northern India.
The discovery, near the border between the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, was confirmed to the BBC on Monday.
It is not clear how the bodies came to be there, but local media reports suggest they may be Covid-19 victims.
Some media reports say as many as 100 bodies have been found, and that their condition suggests they may have been in the river for several days.
“There is a possibility that these bodies have come out of Uttar Pradesh,” a local official, Ashok Kumar, told the BBC after questioning local residents.
He said the remains would be buried or cremated.
What a calamity!
Zimbabwe has not been spared by the pandemic either, as it has lost nearly 1 600 people to date.
The need to prevent a third wave at whatever cost, therefore, becomes paramount.
Everyone has to play a part by embracing the ongoing vaccination programme and heeding World Health Organisation regulations of masking up, sanitising and maintaining social distance.
Just like the local artistes, we might be suffering from the fallout from the coronavirus, but we will soon overcome.
Any life lost is one too many. Let’s remain safe, Covid-19 is real.
Inotambika mughetto.
Feedback: rosenthal.mutakati@
zimpapers.co.zw
