Watch: Doctors in Chennai dance their Covid-19 stress away and spread positivity

When remaining glued to the news and social media feeds on Covid-19 can be emotionally draining even for commoners, how about the condition of our frontline warriors who are physically and mentally leading the fight against Coronavirus? Over 100 leading Doctors from various hospitals in Chennai have made a dance video of theirs to relieve the mental stress of serving during the times of Coronavirus. Besides rendering their selfless service to the patients, they also wish to spread positivity amongst the medical fraternity and their families to overcome these unprecedented, testing times. 

“We initially held an assumption that India would be spared, but as it started spreading, our worries started multiplying. We were tensed about the possibility of getting infected, thereby infecting others and our families. There’s also the uncertainty that comes with job loss and pay cuts. And our fraternity too needed a way to deal with this. Two make matters worse, there were cases of attacks against medical professionals” Dr Sai Surender, Clinical Lead, Emergency Medicine Rela Institute and Medical Centre told WION. 

The idea of the video was born when three doctors got together on a WhatsApp group and decided to add more of their colleagues and friends from the fraternity. But they had one strict rule on the group- No posts on Covid-19 at all costs. In no time, the group had grown to over 100 members. They were all working for top private and government hospitals in Chennai and Vellore. It was agreed upon to film a quick dance video from wherever they were and share it on the group, to make a compilation. 

“We wanted to come up with something that would help relieve the stress. Music was a common healer and stress buster and that’s how it began. People have got this perception that we doctors are serious persons and that we can’t express ourselves, but in the end, we are human beings too and we need a vent for our emotions. We decided that we’d pick only positive songs and that each doctor or his/her team should provide a 30sec-1min clip” Dr Deepashree, Clinical lead, Interventional Radiology told WION. 

The mash-up video that has now garnered about 30K views on Youtube features senior-doctors, hospital owners among others showcasing their dance moves to popular tracks of Michael Jackson, Bobby Mcferrin, A.R Rahman and Anirudh Ravichander. While some of them filmed the videos while at their hospitals, few had also filmed them from their residences and temporary hotel rooms. 

“Everyone one of us is tired of speaking about Corona and many are missing their families. It’s sweet that all agreed to come together for a dance video for the sake of motivating each other and keeping us happy. Some of us way of thanking the housekeeping and paramedical staff who are tirelessly supporting us, as always” Dr Meena, Senior Consultant, Emergency Medicine told WION. 

But beyond the dance video on their Youtube channel, the groups of doctors now want to step up their efforts and conduct interactive sessions with the general public. They wish to reach out on topics such as general health tips and also on specific issues such as cancer, diabetes, cardiology etc. in line with their expertise and specialization.