Dancing away the COVID-19 blues in doctors’ style

In these dire times of the COVID-19 pandemic, even frontline warriors need to cheer up. And what better way than letting your hair down by shaking your leg.

That is exactly over 100 senior doctors from 35 private and government hospitals in Tamil Nadu did by dancing to the tunes of mash-up songs in Tamil and English to keep alive their spirits and those at the forefront of the war against COVID-19.

In a 9.40-minute video uploaded on YouTube, doctors shake their leg to convey a pertinent message of “Be the hope. Together we can. Together we will. Because we care” to their fraternity and those helping them like paramedics and housekeeping staff. All this has been done without even uttering the word "coronavirus" once.

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The music video titled “Tamil Nadu doctors beat COVID-19 Blues”, which has been viewed over 18,000 times at the time of writing, has been shot as part of the “Be the Hope” initiative featuring top professionals like Dr Mohammed Rela of the Dr. Rela Institute and Medical Centre here.

The video also conveys social distancing and hand wash messaging in style while laying stress on “Don’t worry. Be happy.”

The lively video, where doctors dance to some popular tunes from Tamil movies like Nanban, and yet-to-be-released Master, is pepped up with positive messages like ‘hope is everything’, ‘stay awake and stay aware’ and ‘be happy’. One doctor was so impressed with the idea that he shook his leg from his hotel room.

The initiative was taken by three friends -- Dr. Sai Surendar, head of the Department of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Rela Institute, Dr. T Deepashree, Head of Department, Interventional Radiology, Rela Institute, and Dr. K Meena, Senior Consultant, Emergency Medicine, Gleneagles Global Hospital – who worked the phones to get the consent of doctors for the shoot.

Dr. Sai Surendar told DH that the video was brought out to lift the spirits of doctors and other health care professionals who are under extreme stress in the times of COVID-19 as they do not even get to meet their loved ones regularly.

“We have to live with this Coronavirus for a long time and till then the only vaccines that are available are positive thinking, positive vibes, and social distancing. And what better way to convey than dancing to the tunes,” he said.

At the end of the video, celebrities like Khushboo Sundar, Radhika Sarathkumar, Suhasini Maniratnam, and Madhavan appear to salute doctors and frontline workers who are battling COVID-19. And the doctors thank the housekeeping staff, who keep the hospitals clean round-the-clock, in the video.

Dr. Deepashree said many doctors are so “heavily involved” in treating COVID-19 patients that they do not give enough priority to their mental health and even five minutes of dancing would bust their stress.

“There is a stereotype image of doctors that they are serious people. We are humans too. We can sing and dance like any other human and that is what we have demonstrated here by expressing ourselves. And people can take a cue from us and join us in fighting the battle against COVID-19,” she said.

Dr. Meena said doctors who work at the COVID-19 ward are stressed about infecting their loved ones at home as they treat a lot of people every day.

“And wearing the PPE is not easy as one cannot eat, drink water or do anything in the attire for six hours. During the journey back home, we are worried about our family. But this video has helped all of us relieve our stress by shaking our legs,” she added.