Dear Celebs, Just Do Us A Favour, Please Don't Share Your Holiday Pictures!

Can celebs holidaying in Maldives please keep quiet? In April 2021, we are battling two waves - the second wave of coronavirus pandemic and yet another wave of celebs heading to the Maldives for a holiday, the count for which I have honestly lost. Every few weeks or so these posts from celebs basking in the sun, frolicking in the sea, while munching on breakfast served in swimming pools begin doing rounds on social media. But trust me, no one wants to see these pictures right now. So can our celebs please enjoy their holidays without bragging about them?

No bragging, that is all we ask. The issue isn't of heading for vacations. Fine, the nation is burning with fever, hospitals are gasping for oxygen supply, relatives are begging for antiviral drugs and hospital beds on social media, but since we are not holding those who are truly accountable for this second horrendous COVID-19 wave and the mismanagement that has shaped this catastrophe, targetting celebrities simply for holidaying abroad seems unfair!

Some of the actors currently holidaying in the Maldives have recently recovered from the disease. They can afford to holiday, and thus they are burning off some steam. The problem arises when our beloved celebrities mindlessly share pictures from their sunny vacations on social media. How oblivious do you seriously have to be, to not be able to gauge the nation's mood? You do not see the funeral pyres, do cries for help not reach your social media feed? Does news about the scarcity of oxygen, and lifesaving drugs not circulate on the news channels that you watch?

Several actors and influencers in fact must be credited for devoting their time to amplifying SOS calls and life-saving information on social media. Read about them here.

Many people, who can afford to, are stepping up their game and helping those in need around them, be it on social media or outside of it. Curiously, most of these actors and celebrities are the ones, who are known to get into trouble for speaking their mind and being politically incorrect.

Dear Celebs, Just Do Us A Favour, Please Don't Share Your Holiday Pictures!

However, this wasn't the first or won't be the last time our celebrities are escaping to the Maldives during the pandemic. Their escapades last year used to infuse us with a sense of yearning, for better times. Their Instagram was our escape from our stay-at-home-to-stay-safe reality. Some people took up baking bread, others resumed painting or crocheting. Those who couldn't find a hobby glided through tough time courtesy videos and photographs of Maldives beaches and sea, dutifully provided by our celebs. But things are not the same.

The current crisis that we face has sucked out any hopes of resuming our normal routine, let alone travel, soon. Those videos of ambulances waiting to unload dead bodies at crematoriums, of people collapsing in grief after losing a loved one in a hospital, of updates from friends and family members on losing a dear one, just keep coming non-stop. What we face now is a tragic turn to a battle we thought we were close to winning.

Celebs holidaying in Maldives: Dear Celebs, Just Do Us A Favour, Please Don't Share Your Holiday Pictures!

No escape route is big enough to distract us from the reality that stares back at us from newspapers and social media. What we need from celebrities is to either use their influence to help the needy or to simply go off the radar if they are on a holiday. Do not Instagram. It is that simple. Enjoy your holiday, but put a pin on sharing those videos and pictures for now. Perhaps when things go back to normal, when the crisis subsides, we will be in the mood for those posts about the Maldives. Not right now.

The views expressed are the author's own.