March, 2020 Bengaluru 25/03/2020 Day 1 Looking out from the balcony there’s complete absence of the usual noise. The stillness at 6 AM is unusual in the neighbourhood. This is a typical residential area with the usual mix of people, places and performance. I recollect a distant memory - of a morning four days back. … Continue reading Lockdown Diary: Day 1
Roundup 2021
Leh. December, 2021 It was a productive year on several counts. It was also a year when the pandemic became a fixture and most of life and work kept getting rearranged around it. I can’t recollect a single decision taken in 2021 that wasn’t adjusted for Covid-19. There were daily realizations of how uncertain and … Continue reading Roundup 2021
Day 572: Choices
Surathkal. September, 2021. 20/10/2021 Day 572 Choices and articulations It has been 571 days or eighteen months since the beginning of the pandemic. When it tipped a year mark, it felt as though the end was near. I often thought about how this would end. What would I observe in the last days of normalcy … Continue reading Day 572: Choices
Day 515: Pandemic, schools and children
23/08/2021 Day 515 Pandemic, schools and children In Karnataka, high schools and pre-university colleges reopen today after eighteen months of remaining shut due to the pandemic. This prompted me to gather articles and reports on the impact of the pandemic on schools and school-going children in India. The setback in education at school-level is unprecedented. … Continue reading Day 515: Pandemic, schools and children
Was the governments’ response in the second wave reasonable?
This is in response to V's comment on an earlier post 'Coping with Delta'. Here are some thoughts on why I think that the the generalized lockdowns imposed by national and state governments in the second wave were unnecessary in the way they were imposed. This statement needs qualifications - I am writing specifically about … Continue reading Was the governments’ response in the second wave reasonable?
Day 480: Coping with Delta
19/07/2021 Day 480 Coping with Delta By my count that began in March 2020, this is the 480th day of the pandemic. By this morning India has lost 414,108 lives to Covid-19 and more than 30 million people have tested positive for the virus. The delta variant that emerged in India during the second wave … Continue reading Day 480: Coping with Delta
Notes on farming & mechanization
July, 2021. Another kharif season has begun. On the farms three week old saplings of soybean and pigeon pea await a good spell of rain. Here are a couple of observations from this season on our farms. Weather windows are getting considerably shorter. This leads to a very short period in which most cropping activities … Continue reading Notes on farming & mechanization
Day 447
06/06/2021 Day 447 The week was packed with farm work. There was no space to think about anything else. In more than a year of the pandemic, there have been two short spells of 4-5 days when I haven’t managed to write the daily journal. Farming involves loads of physical work. It is exhausting and … Continue reading Day 447
Day 442: Second Wave – Observations from a small town
01/06/2021 Day 442 Second Wave - Observations from a small town Here are a few observations on healthcare services from a district town as the second wave of Covid-19 burnt through the country. In over two months of this public health and epidemic response struggle, a few things are apparent. India’s elected leaders, bureaucrats and … Continue reading Day 442: Second Wave – Observations from a small town
The many mirages in Indian agriculture
After a week of harvest and another of preparing the farm plots for next sowing season, here are some quick notes. Farm mechanisation is a serious need. The processes in small scale farming are completely manual. These are limiting the ways in which farmers organize farm processes and their ability to extract efficiencies from the … Continue reading The many mirages in Indian agriculture
Day 432: ‘Can fight Covid, not starvation’
22/05/2021 Day 432 ‘Can fight Covid, not starvation’ It is the 432nd day of the pandemic. Things lose meaning when they go on for long. The pandemic seems to be one such. The count is suffering the same fate. Yet, I keep at it. This is the only harmless continuity. The mood right now is … Continue reading Day 432: ‘Can fight Covid, not starvation’
Contested Realities 