The novel corona virus 2019(COVID-19) pandemic has become a global concern on public health (Rajkumar, 2020). Mental health issues among the people around the world also increases due to a two-fold effect of the pandemic (Pfefferbaum and North, 2020). As a direct effect, the increase in infection and death rates, the preventive measures such as lock-down, physical distancing etc. cause different mental health issues such as fear, anxiety etc. among people (Tandon, 2020). As an indirect effect, the impact of COVID-19 gives ways to crises in every field such as economy which affect the people especially in developing countries. Overall, these lead to many psychological impacts among the people including negative thoughts and suicide etc. (Nicolaa et al., 2020).
Amidst of COVID-19 death trolls and suicides connected with pandemic mental health issues in the media, a real life story from India stands different and positive as society works as a helping hand for not letting an elderly couple to reach more mental health concerns. The 80-year-old Kanta Prasad and his wife who run a small eatery called ‘Baba Ka Dhaba’in South Delhi, India was one among those who badly affected with COVID-19 crisis in business (The indian express, 2020). The aged couple couldn’t earn much daily due to the lockdown measures as only few come to buy their food. The weeping man’s video explaining his difficulties recorded by a person went viral in social media in a day’s time and this made a lot of changes in this man’s life. People started sharing the video including celebrities. Requests to visit and eat from the shop for people residing near to this place resulted in outpouring support for these aged couple, a long queue for their food, support from online food operators and investment promises from different persons. A day after another video of same couple thanking the entire nation, was surfing in the social media.
The culture perspective towards pandemic situations can clearly explain the current incident (Velamoor and Persad, 2020). India’s culture stands as combination of both collectivism and individualism. Here, the collectivist culture perspective of the India renders support for the individual during such a tough time by protecting the individualism perspective. With support of social media, people around the country acted together to help out a person to support his earning which was affected due to pandemic situation, not as a charity but supporting their business and upholding the individuality. This incident is a best example for the supportive system that can prevent the mental health issues rather than it leading to the many severe negative outcomes. Such a cohesive approach with support of technology can be used as an effective tool for path to positive psychology.
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