The saga of a three-finger salute

News of the pandemic waves of Covid-19 and political waves of the three-fingered protest is making the rounds. The confidence that we mustered with the advent of vaccines is being punctured by the rise in the number of affected coronavirus patients. At the same time, the hope of democratic process in the region is being shattered by the military coup in our neighbouring South East Asian countries; the antidote is an iconic salute. Taking their cue from popular culture, protesters first in Thailand, then in Hong Kong, and now in Myanmar, are trying to take a symbolic stance against respective authoritarian regimes. They have borrowed the three-finger salute from the literary and film series The Hunger Games and used this gesture to demonstrate an act of defiance. Like the vaccine, it has the potential to be effective, but its potency is yet to be tested.