::: ABHEDA TATTVA :::

May 17, 2021 A city that was already crawling under the weight of extended lockdowns due to the second wave of Covid-19 came to a grinding halt yesterday after Cyclone Tauktae barreled its way-in pounding the city leaving behind a trail of carnage. Nature's fury once more unleashed itself in the form of  torrential rains and stormy winds that kept picking up speed damaging properties, uprooting trees, water logging streets destroying every thing that came it's way. Nothing was spared. The only prayer on everyone's mind was - This storm has to pass!  The governance's foresight in evacuating the Covid patients from the Jumbo centres to Hospitals is note-worthy as was their preparedness in upping the Relief team capacity to mobilize the best possible relief and rescue operations. The Spirit of Mumbai , a day after being battered by Cyclone Tauktae is incredible. It moved on unbidden. #respects

COVID-19 changed everything for us. While it ravaged us emotionally, physically and financially, it also showed us 3 sides of  humanity - the Exploiter, the Exploited and the Messiahs. While the first wave put us on high alert, boomeranged our sensibilities, helped us identify our priorities while showing us a new way of living; the second wave has been a harbinger of death and doom. The positive cases sharply soared and people fell like a pack of cards in huge numbers. Amid the surge, the need for Medical Oxygen and Remdisivir injections grew manifold. While Messiahs in the form of NGO's and individuals continued to work relentlessly from the front-line without fearing for their lives, we, also witnessed the birth of vultures basking in their new businesses. Be it launching a duplicate essential medicine in the market or hoarding the medicines, medical devices, oxygen cylinders and selling them at obnoxious prices unaffordable to the common man. These black marketeers profiteered...

Out of nowhere, we had a new topic in our lives in February 2019  - COVID 19. Media was snow-balling the topic daily till it became a part of our everyday conversation. What followed in March 2019 was unforeseen. We had a pandemic in our lives and the first of the lockdown for our generation. What was meant to last for a day, has transcended into 13 months and we are still where we were same time last year with a respite of few months in between. The pandemic altered our lives enormously.  Today, WE are COVID ravaged - emotionally, physically and financially! We cannot breathe freely. We had to trade our freedom of breathing in open fresh air to being layered behind the mask. Sanitizers became an essential overnight. Fear occupied a larger compartment in our mind. We became obsessed with sanitizations. Social distancing became the new norm. Warm hugs to loved ones became a distant memory. Immunity which we took for granted all our life became the focal point. To keep...