Writing Penance

An unusual penalty awaited ten foreign nationals who violated India’s national lockdown. 

They had been caught strolling along the banks of the Ganga in Rishikesh, a city in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand, on Saturday. 

The tourists who were from the United States, Mexico, Austria, Ukraine and Israel were each ordered to write ‘I did not follow the lockdown, I am sorry’ 500 times on paper sheets as punishment. 

LOL, in the good old days, this was a popular form of disciplinary action that teachers mete out to students for minor infractions. Then, we called it ‘writing penance’. 

Vinod Sharma, in-charge of Tapovan police post under Muni-ki-Reti police station, said they are also going to take action against the managers of hotels and ashrams where these foreign tourists were staying for allowing them to step out. It is estimated that there are around 600 foreign tourists stuck in Rishikesh after the lockdown was enforced. 

I don’t blame them if they felt they need to get out. Self-quarantine is self-imprisonment and some of us – like me – just can’t take it.  

Still, there are those who thrive during this stay-at-home spell. Intrepid traveler and bodacious adventurer Yusuf Hashim (pic below), for one, publicly declares he loves this lockdown!