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If you predicted a better 2021, you didn’t take away the one lesson from Covid

Here we are, a few days into 2021, and nothing has become magically better than 2020.

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Stop saying 2021 will be better than 2020. It just shows how superstitious you are and your lack of understanding of science and nature. Everyone partied like there’s no tomorrow on 31 December, but here we are, two days into 2021, and a mutant strain of the coronavirus has travelled on trains across India.

New year’s eve is all about leaving behind bad and useless habits. Maybe it’s time for us to get real and leave behind wilful ignorance.

The year 2020 proved that astrologers and horoscopes can’t predict reality. Charting stars, reading palms, looking at numbers, or just believing that 2021 will be magically great were useless. And that is because a virus is unpredictable, it doesn’t read WhatsApp forwards, and no amount of calling out to the universe is going to help.

Like Dr Faheem Younus said, “COVID can’t read a calendar. Nothing magical will happen on Jan 1st 2021. Vaccines/masks/avoiding crowds will slow it down and ultimately end. Our actions will end the pandemic, not time.”


Also read: Why online astrologers are secretly thanking their stars, Covid, and science-averse Indians


No one to predict pandemics 

This last year saw some truly bizarre claims about the pandemic. And before delving into it, let me just reiterate: None of them were correct.

Renowned astrology researcher Mahesh Bang made a series of bizarre and unscientific predictions on the Covid-19 pandemic. This included predicting the peak of the virus based on charting the movement of planets and stars.

He also, very conveniently, predicted that on 21 November, everything will go back to normal. Well, we all know that did not happen. Like it didn’t on 31 December.

Then, he added, “We must acknowledge that the global horoscope is overpowering each country’s horoscope for a few months. Due to the rare configuration that occurred in December last year, we need to understand that it will take time.” Right.

It was not only Bang, such predictions were plastered across social media, news channels and news websites. And even after banging thalis and giving taalis, the coronavirus was still there.

Another astrologer, Ashaben, reportedly did predict a deadly virus in 2019 but also said that it will get better by April 2020. How right she was. But I guess, she can be redeemed now that she has also predicted that there will be grave fallout of the pandemic — a bad economy. What an insightful prediction. No one saw that coming.

And now, famous astrologer Susan Miller has this to say about 2021 — “We will emerge stronger, having gone through this.” Groundbreaking.

I guess we are none the wiser.


Also read: Mecca to Vatican — COVID-19 proves when human beings are in peril, gods flee first


Predictions are dangerous

You can’t predict life. And neither can you wish it away at the stroke of midnight. Superstitions didn’t help in 2020, they won’t help in 2021.

According to a report in The New York Times, the market of astrologers actually went up during the pandemic. Such was the uncertainty of 2020. Even though science, in the most rudimentary terms possible, calls astrology absolute rubbish, people still turned to it to find solutions for a transmissible virus.

NYT calls it the ‘confirmation bias’. “Most psychologists agree that astrology’s appeal relies largely on “confirmation bias” — the human tendency to seek out, recall and favour information that confirms what we already believe.”

But like everything, the pandemic changed the rules of this game also. It was harmless till it was about finding your soulmate, but spreading misinformation and giving false hope in a rather hopeless time has real-life consequences. And many, many things have been cancelled for far less.


Also read: Coronavirus responses show how humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit worldview


‘Go, corona, go’ 

A large part of India’s Covid-19 fight was also against myths and superstitions. And, to an extent, it is understandable that it happened in 2020. There was little information about a virus that was forcing us to stay indoors and had basically overhauled our lives. So, Indian uncles and aunties can perhaps be forgiven for shoving a barrage of WhatsApp forwards down everyone’s throats that almost always gave fake information on Covid.

But it is 2021 now and we understand the virus far better.

Even if we break a coconut in front of the Serum Institute, or pray before stepping out of our homes, or chant ‘go, corona, go’ at dusk in unison, it won’t change the fact that the pandemic is still here. And vaccinations will take place at the pace of science, not superstitions.

A vaccine is coming and while life may not go back to the ‘normal’ we knew, it is far more normal than it was in March 2020. There’s hope and then there are illogical antics. Most Indians veer towards the latter. It’s time we bring about behavioural changes — washing hands and wearing masks in crowded places even after the pandemic — than rely on aligning of the planets and stars.

If we aren’t taking away that lesson from the Covid era, then there is a problem. Then, we are not preparing for the reality of more pandemics.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. When writing a piece, how one conviniently misses the year.. in prediction, its 21st Nov, 2021 when things will turn normal, and you wrote that after 21st Nov, nothing improved. Either you are stupid to miss the year or did it deliberately due to your biasing against predictions (as the nature of the article is)

    • See the name and religion of the author and everything will begin to make sense. Never seen one article from this writer about the Pope and the 100s of years where the Church poured boiling lead down the throats of scientists and astronomers. As usual, Hindus will stay quiet and swallow this insult as well.

  2. A reality which is tough to swallow for our uncles and aunties. I think we should go back a millenia for the minds to change in a positive way

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