He worked. He fell ill. He died. In Saudi Arabia. Two days ago. He contracted the MERS coronavirus and his family is reluctant to repatriate the remains back home amid fears that they might get infected if they came in contact with the body. Arab News carried a front page report that has become a global measure for where love has gone.

Out of the window.

Dasharati Sattaih from Telangana is truly alone. Even the family is afraid to get him back because they are scared they will be infected. Grief and fear in equal measure.

God forbid, you had to face this dilemma what would you do? I imagine 999 out of a thousand would say, rubbish bring him home and we’ll say goodbye. But then, even this family would have said the same if they had been asked a hypothetical question. No one ever thinks of self preservation till the occasion arises and then it is a question of ‘me first’”

The human race never knows its heights of courage and the right thing or its depths of cowardice. On the face of it, we are appalled by what we would see as the family’s indifference and callousness.

This guy was sweating it out for the family. In another land. Saving every riyal to send home. And they have all turned away. Isn’t there anyone in government or the police or the medical fraternity who can go to this family and allay their fears. Surely a district collector or a police inspector or the local doctor can get over there and say, look, bring your son/husband/brother home, there is nothing to fear.

In the interim, just for a moment see it from their viewpoint. They are rural and poor and broken-hearted and afraid and being brow beaten by the neighbors and the whole village that if they bring the body home they will be ostracized, even asked to leave the village, how can they place everyone in jeopardy.

Even at this moment though the poor man is lying dead a thousand miles away there would be those in that little village avoiding the home like the plague had already hit.

When it slams you in the face, what do you do? Irrational? Of course, but superstition, misinformation, rural gossip, all that kicks in. We fear for ourselves.

So Dasharati is still to finish his final journey.