Remembering our 400m champion

It was very sad to read that Covid-19 claimed another legend. Every day a few thousands of people are dying in India, and every other day we hear of someone in the public eye succumbing to the disease. These people would have got the best of treatment, so it leaves us, common people, with a sense of helplessness. For the immediate family it must be very sorrowful to lose both Milkha Singh and Nirmal Kaur in the span of a few days.

In my hunt for autographs, and despite my participation in Masters Athletics (in pre-Covid times, I was running 100, 200 & 400m) and staying briefly in Chandigarh (where Milkha Singh was living), I never got to meet him. My mother did though, during her school days.

Bangalore was host to a National Athletics meet in July 1962, and as one can imagine, those who had even a little interest in sports thronged to see the Flying Sikh who had missed out on the bronze medal at the Rome Olympics a couple of years before that.

Vaccination jokes

Vaccination is a serious matter. In the current Covid-19 situation, it seems to be one of the key factors that would be responsible in getting the pandemic under control, reducing severity of the disease, minimising the need for hospitalisation, and allowing us to continue to live.

Our government has made quite a mess of the vaccination plan for the country, through the vaccination policy it announced in the middle of April, amidst the gasps for breaths of oxygen and hunts for hospital beds.

Announcing early victory over the virus (sans vaccination made it a big accomplishment), delay in ordering vaccines, high-handedness with vaccine makers, vaccine mockery, handing over vaccine acquisition to the states, differential pricing, changing vaccination schedules and regimen … Every area that could be messed up, has been messed up.

After many days

After many days, I stepped out of our apartment block, within our Whispering Palms Complex. Just a half-hour afternoon walk, to move my limbs and take in some sun.

With lockdown, understandably, there were just a few people around, going about their business. Cyclone Tauktae’s rains the other day have washed the trees and streets clean. The air too.

Random things

My blog is a space where I save things that I think I may want to remember and revisit sometime in the future. So today I have a few picks of the past couple of weeks.

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One of my friends sent this picture the other day. My mom and brother are both in this class photo of Std 2, Baldwin Boys’ High School. Mom’s friend from teacher’s training college fell terminally ill and mom went to substitute for her. She ended up teaching for most of the academic year.

BBHS, Std 2 (1981-82)

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An O2 story

Ram Grover’s posts on Twitter yesterday vividly describe the situation in possibly every Indian city. In small towns they must be gasping and dropping.

This is the state of the common man.

I am at a place where they are filling cylinders with oxygen. There is a line on the main road, from where the cops and civil defence allow about 5 to 7 people to go inside with the cylinders. There are rickshaws etc who load the cylinder and then ride till the gate…

— Ram Grover (@RamGrover) May 4, 2021

pic.twitter.com/aGCBklHFWL

— Ram Grover (@RamGrover) May 4, 2021

As we enter the month of May

Thousands of humans are dying in India because we allowed COVID to spread like wild fire, without being prepared to handle so many people falling ill at the same time.

No normal hospital beds. No ICU beds. No ventilator beds. No medicines. No injections. No ambulances.

More than anything else – no oxygen to breathe. No oxygen cylinders. No refills. No oxygen concentrators.

Doctors and nurses are tired. They not only attend to patients, but also decide whom to prioritise for treatment, given the resources in their hands.

How many?

Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
And how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind

– Bob Dylan

So much sorrow everywhere. Hope this video makes you smile.

Covid help – Mumbai (also Delhi & others)

If you are looking for any kind of Covid help, I’ve tried to compile things in one place.

Last edit: 30th April 2021

From TOI

Holi 2021

Quite honestly, I thought that a year on, Covid would be on it’s way out. Far from it. With over 62,000 daily new cases, we seem to be racing towards the peak of last September.

Namma Metro in covid times

Entry notice at MG Road