Bengaluru 25/04/2022 Covid- 19 and ending the Lockdown Diary When the Covid-19 lockdowns began in March 2020, I began writing notes everyday as a lockdown diary. I wrote continuously for a year and then intermittently thereafter. It went on for 572 days and as cities, travel and workplaces opened up after the second wave, writing … Continue reading Lockdown Diary: Last Entry
Tag: Pandemic
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
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
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’
Day 419: Vaccinating the world needs a talk first
07/05/2021 Day 419: Vaccinating the world needs a talk first By the 419th day of the pandemic, there’s a raging debate about IP on vaccines and how to speed up production. Industry associations, the EU and almost other influential trade bodies that matter in agreement that IP is not the issue in the current crisis. … Continue reading Day 419: Vaccinating the world needs a talk first
‘Let me go build a free hospital’: Indian Healthcare and CMC Vellore’s history
In thinking about healthcare systems - capability and capacity, a broad consensus in India is that the Indian state has failed in providing it. This diagnosis is broadly accepted. However, in thinking about responses to address the problems, it might be useful to not be completely led by experiences in the private sector - there … Continue reading ‘Let me go build a free hospital’: Indian Healthcare and CMC Vellore’s history
Contested Realities 