IRSHAD SALIM — A seven-year-old Greek piano prodigy has reportedly penned an ‘isolation waltz’.
Inspired by the coronavirus pandemic, Stelios Kerasidis says his latest work is ‘for people who suffer and isolate because of Covid-19’.
His hypnotic, fugue-like melody has picked up more than 201,000 hits on YouTube since its launch last week. He first performed in public at the age of three.
Southeast of Greece, Ali, a Pakistani kid is beating isolation — in open air. His waltz: “Take it for free”, he tells a buyer if he can’t afford a mask he sells for Rs20. “My mother told me a very bad disease has spread”.
Now this. In isolation, a 37-yr-old construction professional (married with kids) picks up brush and colors to revisit his memory lane. I call the artworks that the Islamabad-based Mohammad Ahmed has produced manifestations of his “predictive memories” which remained inert until the global shock and awe: social distancing, isolation, etc.
And this. Isolation wrapped up, watching tickers or talk shows, etc. on TV — a favorite pastime in the subcontinent.
Well I’m trying to practice the natural way — thinking straight — and on all matters that money can’t buy. Even if one’s wallet has cash and or credit cards I fear like the first half of the pic below I may now have to accept is the way to go: the chatter about cryptocurrency (digital currency), 5G and “global government” on social media, specially WhatsApp is like 2016’s Lucifer. A new normal on the horizon I suspect for our bonded rationality to embrace, as the new world order shakes hands with us just as in 1982’s ET.
Guess what. I’m going green. To the jungle or the suburb. Beat the vaccine!
The writer is business consultant and analyst based in Islamabad. Email: [email protected] Tweet him at twitter.com/irshadsalim
