A Day in the Life of a Resident Doctor

I am a residential doctor at a Delhi government hospital. Just like any other student of medicine I was waiting eagerly for my final year post graduation exams just a couple of months away. Life is so uncertain! Who can know it better then we doctors. On a daily basis we are exposed to the warming sunrays of life, living and healing on the one hand and the gloomy shadow of death on the other. I don’t know which one is more substantial. When life and living prevails against all odds with our support, it seems life is the strongest force. But come one swipe by death and it manipulates the very air in the ward. Over a period of time, a kind of detachment builds up towards both life and death. I know we all have to die. But more importantly, I know that we have to live before that.

The initial panic build-up in the hospital designated as a Covid care center left us clueless. It was a viral blast equivalent of an actual explosive blast. There you see the wounds and physical destruction. Here the wreckage lies in minds as panic and hysteria creeps up the walls of logic and common sense. So we jumped up and tried to salvage all that we could. The fear of the unknown manifests in full strength in case of a new and incurable disease. We ourselves were as helpless as the patients. But a doctor has to try to save lives and we did all we could.

Pushed to the corners, we turned even operation theaters into Corona patient care yards. Through the sheer strength of mass fear, the word ‘Corona’ was gaining more and momentum in its avalanche type of march across the routine and normal yards of our lives. We flailed our arms like the ship is sinking and you are in an emergency mode. Usually we doctors feel empowered against the routine diseases as we handle the mission to save a life. However, in this case, we were as much of a prey liable to fall to the new virus as anyone else. Usually, we give our best to save a life. Here we have to devote a lot of energies to save ourselves also. Divided attention. The debilitated mission.

With hundred beds on a floor, it appeared scary to we resident doctors. There was a separate donning area to get decked up like astronauts, where they help each other into the PPE kits. You get suspicious of your hand-washing skills as you go on rubbing and rubbing. You aren’t sure about anything. The nasty microscopic organism might be lurking around to lay ambush. Precaution raised to the power of above normalcy results in paranoia. Let there be the littlest chink in your armor and you are slain. So we padded up like soldiers going to bloody medieval wars and hid behind heavy metallic armor of the uncouth, unsuitable PPE kits. The first layer of gloves goes over the excessively rubbed soft skin. You are scared that some soldier of the evil might have remained behind. The shoe covers appear to make you lose your footprints. You try your level best to steady yourself to be confident of your walk. The overalls take you into the folds of strange anonymity, like you are an alien in a queer setting. The possibility of things going wrong lurking well over the benchmark of calculated risk in medical parlance. You then go faceless to the outside world as you put on an N95 mask followed by a surgical mask still followed by the cap. The withdrawal into the womb of anonymity isn’t still over as another layer of gloves and a face shield or goggles turn you into an altogether different species. You are an thickly armored soldier, cumbersomely space-suited astronaut and a heavily donned firefighter all mixed in one. That’s how I felt.

As the pandemic and the panic arrived like a sudden Tsunami strike, the initial PPE kits were inhumanly cumbersome and suffocating. It shows how unprepared we are against emergencies. You felt tightly squeezed and thrown into the hostile environment of a strange planet like a guinea pig. You lose on something precious to your sense of freedom, making you feel depressive, indecisive and suffocated. Like a lumbering snowman forced into a snowless, sweltering hot valley, you lose your focus as the goggles turn foggy due to your labored breathing. Nervousness and heat turn you a sweating pig inside. You don’t have the liberty to wipe your sweat or clean your goggles. You speak like from a subterranean vault. You are barely audible from behind the covering and hence have to shout to be audible. It scares both the nursing staff and the patients. In case of managing the health of severely ill patients, you are highly responsible for what words you use in your communication. To avoid sounding bullying and rowdy to the patients and nursing staff, we force ourselves to communicate through sign language and hand gestures. Once you go into the cockpit of your PPE kit, you cannot eat, drink or visit bathroom for six hours at a stretch. Sweat drains like tiny rivers over the face. The air-conditioning system is put off to avoid the virus aerosolizing in the central ducts. 

The virus creates Silent Hypoxia, wherein the oxygen level silently creeps down unnoticeably. The patient stays asymptomatic till the oxygen level plummets to a critical point. The normal oxygen saturation level is 99-100%. If it falls below 90%, one needs oxygen support to avoid organ damage. What makes Corona quite fearsome is the fact that the patient doesn’t show any signs of restlessness, drowsiness and difficulty in breathing even when the saturation level has fallen to 80%. This ‘air hunger’ makes it almost fatal.

It’s an ordeal to face dead scared patients arriving with a look as if they are being forced into gas chambers. This acceptance of fear, this surrender of the life force to the veritable agent of death makes the virus all the more powerful as the psychological trauma eats into the vital reserves of energy that would have been used by the soldiers of immunity to build up a counter attack. Inserting oropharynx or swab in the patients’ nose was like performing a big surgery. Not that we found it so difficult. It’s an innocuous cotton bud intended to touch the inside of the nose. All it takes is 20 seconds. But the look of fear turns it into an intolerable ordeal for the patient as if this little medical process is the thin line between life and death.

As a resident doctor, I’m relatively new to see people dying. I was happily awaiting my post graduation exams and get onto the medical bandwagon like in normal times. It’s traumatic to see the first patient dying under your care. The situation makes it all the more painful. They gasp like fish out of water. You are alone on the night shift. The patient dies all alone in isolation beyond the sympathy and support of her near and dear ones.  

You yourself have to keep yourself isolated and quarantined after 12 hour shifts. Imagine two doctors and four nurses for more than hundred patients. As you lumber out of your anonymity, you just try to hydrate yourself as if you have been in the driest desert for months and you simply prey upon water bottles and ORS. You just sleep, work, sleep, work in an interminable sequence.

More than the onerous duties, it’s the paperwork that traumatizes the soul of we doctors. I cannot understand why doctors have to do so much of paperwork themselves. It can be safely designated to some other staff. Doctors doing data entry isn’t too promising for any country’s healthcare system.

The true nature of we humans comes naked during such critical times. We needed blood for a critically ill patient and made a pleading announcement in front of a crowd. They simply vanished. One haggard old man came forward with a few hundred rupees to help.

Nursing orderlies have to carry out the bodies of Corona victims. They think it’s more burdensome than an ox ferrying hundreds of tons of cargo in a rickety cart. They are scared of the corpses and dilly-dally and slip around their responsibilities. The dead body stays in the yard as a ghastly reminder to the patients who get more panicked. We have to run around to somehow get the body sent to the crematorium to salvage some respect for the dead as there are no family members around.    

All I wish is the return of our normal world of six months back. It’s irritants and problems now appear well digestible and worthy to have around.

The Pathless Path to a Grand Old Tree

The moment we leave the last foot trail, thus surrendering the entitlement or privilege of the beaten path's comfort and security, we find ourselves on the open canvas of prospects and potentiality to mark our own trail. A sense of elation, liberation and freedom starts trickling in through the fog of fear, apprehension and inhibition. I get this teasing feeling of adventure and elation as I finally leave the marked path, the last vestiges of the foot trail losing its identity among the rainfed luxuriant forest growth. The human foot loses its smell, allowing the pure scent of nature trees, plants, bushes and vines to cascade around in full freedom. Mother nature basks in pristine sovereignty.
We are conditioned to follow the comfort and security of the marked trail of çustoms, conventions and beliefs as much as we feel secure in following the human foot on a forest trail. The more I move into the open embrace of human-untrampled nature, a sense of wonderment overcomes my apprehension. I move with reptilian grace, with pliability, fluidity, acceptance and receptivity. I don't trangress or try to force my way with my typical human attitude and spirit of controlling the nature elements around. I just have a faint idea of where I am headed to. I request the pristine forest energy to allow me move and be properly guided on the pathless path. Tits, sparrows and pippits send out shrill warnings to each other from the bushes. Rufous treepies shriek accusatively. A kakad, the tiniest memeber in the deer family dashes like the hundred meter sprinter of the forest. Asian barbet lets loose a puk-puk-puk trail of notes that goes gliding over the valley. Jungle fowls scamper under the bushes. Quails quake with fear and anger. Reptiles must have moved unseen as they do with ease. And who knows some leopard must have looked with disgust from some point as there are around 80 of them in the area as per the latest census.
I seek forgiveness for the disturbance I create. Like a vulnerable but joyful child I just ask for guidance on the pathless path. Not too much to my surprise, I find myself at the most suitable points over ridges, brooks and valleys. And my milestone awaits for me as if it has been waiting for me specifically.
An older than the oldest crocodile bark tree instantly makes me feel coming at home at last. Crocodile bark trees are medium size trees that remain leafless for many months in a year. The monsoon rains have infused new life and fresh, verdant leaves gleam with the pure smile of undisturbed nature. Every species have their Behemoth. If there is any among the crocodile bark trees in the region, it must be this tree. The Behemoth is stamped with age. The time worn trunk is massive like that of banyan. It has the oldest of a great-great-great-grandfatherly feel. Toothless, worn out, skin shriveled, huge shock of white hair and massive beard. But still elegant with an all-knowing smile of centuries of wisdom. A mere look and a feeling of its old age fetches reverence. It has been an undisturbed concentration of energy for many many decades. Its path has been clearly free of human intervention. Dead wood has fallen around it and houses mosses and ferns. It has fought its battle under the open forces of nature. It carries its battle scars over the massive moss-laden hollows and crumbling citadel of its trunk. The decaying primary trunk has still enough life to support a few offshoots of the size of young trees of the species. Among the new offshoots, there is enough room for me to lie down and stare into the huge hollow primary trunk carrying its mossy darkness into the oldest roots where I am sure a cobra family would feel at their comfortable most. I take off my shoes and climb into the ancient old wood platform like I enter a temple. I meditate and feel the blessings by its old hand. Imbued with its selfless energy I climb down and bow before it and seek guidance on the pathless path.
As per the logical choice of my conscious mind, I see an opening high on the slope leading to the crest of the hill. As per my reasoning, it should be my first choice. But I have opened myself to the natural guidance of the open forces of nature, so I simply wait for some impulse, some driving of an alternative choice in my mind. On some instinct I am driven into a thick wall of tress and bushes straight ahead instead of the convenient clear path above. I can hardly see anything because the growth is really thick. After struggling for a couple of hundred yards, I find myself on the open clear palm of a ledge in the slope overlooking the valley and a clear path leading to the point that would ensure that I will be able to take knowing steps to my recourse and define my back journey. I then look at the point where I would have reached if I were to take the apparently easy path leading to the hill crest in the other direction. It would surely have left me in the middle of almost nowhere, requiring a few hours of slogging to reach the nearest point on my back journey. A storm cloud is building over the hilltop. A smile of gratitude and love surfaces on my face. I am convinced that the tree spirit has guided me because I have choosen to pay respect to the natural intelligence waving around. I again bow in the direction of the grand old tree and proceed on my journey. Well, not on the pathless path this time, but on the convenient human stamped track!

The Galwan Battle

After 100 days of deep freeze, the world was getting reshaped (un)predictably with mankind coming out battered and bruised, but unfortunately madder and apparently not seeming to have learnt any substantial lessons. On the night of 15-16 June, 20 Indian soldiers got martyred in a bloody gunless eyeball-to-eyeball medieval era hand-combat and confrontation along LAC in Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladhak. It was a fierce physical confrontation, in fact the first one since 1975 when there are casualties in the dispute. So its criticality can’t be missed.

India honors its dead; the PLA keeps their casualty secret. They say that they are not releasing the number of dead on their side lest people of both countries compare the number of fatalities leading to flaring of emotions, thus adding fuel to the fire. Hypothetically the goal appears pretty decent, but can a dictatorial communist regime be expected to be so pure in intention? They say it is a sign of their being ‘responsible’. When does a power-centric dictatorial group, eager to manipulate the lives of millions as per few rigid lines in the red book, behaves ‘responsibly’? So the PLA soldiers who died for the party’s cause will be buried unknown. One can very well imagine the level of secrecy in a dictatorial government by the fact that the Chinese casualties suffered in the 1962 war were inconspicuously shared in internal military history documents in 1990s only. Perhaps they drill it in the minds of their armed cadres that dying unknown serves the cause of the revolution.  

However, even such ‘responsible’ behavior cannot stop people from using their brains to put up conjectures. An American media report says China lost 35 soldiers. We can have our own justifications for systematic, organized dying. Fighting for a democratic nation helps man. The Indian soldiers get tear-eyed farewells with full state honor. There are elaborate funeral processions and ceremonies organized by the grateful nation. The wards of the martyred soldiers are openly rewarded in terms of monetary help and jobs. The highest of the high bow their head in salutation and gratitude.

The fallen PLA soldiers on the contrary get anonymous graves and their wards threatened from opening out to the public on the issue. They die unknown, Indian soldiers die with the entire country singing farewell songs. Well, in my opinion, a soldier in the former case will have more reason to give his all for his beloved country. In the latter, it’s merely an intimidating duty forced down by an authoritarian state.

In India, the news of the Galwan Valley skirmish and the death of soldiers prevailed over all Corona doomsday talk. People just forgot Corona in one swift lot and condemned Chinese aggression. The news media and social media were boiling with the entire country’s common man’s fusillade against the Chinese. Boycot China movement built up. Xi Jinping’s effigies were burnt. People filmed their brave efforts of smashing Chinese products including TV sets. Indians these days are pretty vocal for the cause of the nation, especially if it involves safe, harmless battles on the social media.

Unlike Kargil, the Indian journalists were spared from their frontline duties to cover the daily routine of the war. This time there was no coverage of what actually was happening on the border. It was kept away from the public scrutiny. A direct reporting of the Chinese intrusion into the Indian territory would have been too disturbing to the patriotic audience on the social media. Social media is always a ticking time bomb. It can slay any reputation in seconds. So the image of the keepers of modern India’s nationalism would have been dented. So taking a clue from the communist neighbor, there has been more secrecy in India also this time as journalists were not allowed to take their war front beyond Ladhak. But all in all, a healthy narrative has been build up which is clearly against China and rightly so.   

The sun was setting over the barren tensed up Himalayan heights in the Galwan Valley. The terrain is so inhospitable that there is hardly any life link between the barren stones and the perennial snows. Between 6 and 7 PM, Commanding Officer Santosh Babu led 20 of his soldiers to see the de-escalation process, as agreed in June 6 talks, at a disputed Chinese shelter near Patrol Point 14. The agreements of 1996 and 2005 for the border management between the two countries mandate no use of firearms, blasting operations or hunting with guns or any use of explosives within 2 Km of the LAC. The soldiers were thus unarmed in spirit. The forward troops from both sides patrolling the contentious LAC usually don’t carry guns, and if they do carry weapons, these are slung on their backs and magazines are tucked safely out of reach in pouches instead of being clipped on and thus at the mercy of itching, nervous fingers prone to press the trigger.

All along the rugged Himalayan terrain running for almost 4000 Km between the two Asian giants, there is no clearly demarcated border. The two countries’ claim lines twist and twirl along roughest of mountainous geography. These contested points of friction, so dreary and inhospitable that none of the parties can think of staying there permanently during the winters, are then patrolled by the frontier troops routinely during short Himalayan summer, leaving peace to be enforced by the harsh winters. Status quo is stamped by the snows in winters. And a shift-able status quo is always to the advantage of a predatory dictatorial government in comparison to a democratic one. The former has to push on by instinct because you are not a dictator if you don’t push on principle. All that the democracy can manage is to stand against the push. That’s what China has been doing against all its neighbors.

After the snow-ordained lull in the winters, skirmishes blossom up during the short summers when flowers in the alpine meadows smile and brooks gurgle with pristine snow melts. We humans, however, are looking to seek the last paradisiacal spots on earth to carry the smell of humanity to complete our copyright over mother earth. Before the skirmish, the forward troops keep their hands in pockets as heated verbal power gathers steam. It then creeps to pushing and jostling, and finally fist-fights and stone throwing. Better sense has prevailed over both sides to agree to the no fire use mandate across border because they know there are almost innumerable friction points and the status quo always challenged by the more aggressive party. Again, almost on principle, a communist regime is bound to be more aggressive. In the current scuffle the Chinese took one more step in aggression as they used boulders, stones, barbed wires ties around rocks, and sticks studded with nails. That takes them nearer to the use of bullets itself.  

A nervous dusk was piling up its layers over the ridges defining the highest battlefield in the world. By this time the Chinese soldiers were supposed to have withdrawn from the disputed tent structure. The biggest mistake one can commit is to expect the Chinese communists to keep their words. We have seen Nehruvian blunder in taking their word prior to the attack of 1962. So nothing to feel surprised about it when the Indian verification patrol found the tent and the observation post still there. The PLA soldiers found the lure of the observation post too much to leave it just like that. There definitely was a plan which was beyond the scope of the recent agreement meant for de-escalation. The structure was built within the limits up to which Indian patrol parties did their rounds without any dispute presently. But then as a communist one has to crawl on and on. The ideology thrives as long as the instinct to crawl on thrives. And crawling on always pushes the status quo to a new boundary from where another milestone manifests, thus egging them to crawl still further. Can we have a bigger capitalist idea than this ever-persistent urge to crawl on and on?

Crawling around this particular place in the Galwan Valley allowed them to keep an eye over the Indian troop movement towards the north near the Karakoram Pass. Even more significantly, it would give them an opportunity to lay siege on the army movement on the newly laid DBO road leading to the highest airbase in the world. DBO airstrip where India lands the biggest cargo plane in the world is an eyesore to the Chinese because it’s situated just 10 Km from the multi-billion dollar economic corridor. This cartographic intrusion and aggression is part of their plans to safe-keep and consolidate the logistic route of this CPEC. And there are many more. These but are hidden because the scheming power of a communist regime far more than we can grasp with our democratic conjectures.

The Chinese communists basically perform creeping encroachments thus avoiding a full scale escalation. At least in this region they are trying to gain all the strategic heights necessary to allay their fears about the CPEC. Now CPEC itself is born of their insecurity and sense of danger in the Malacca Straits though which most of their shipping takes places and which can be choked by America because they have naval superiority. Is there any limit to the scale of insecurity? One measure taken to allay one particular insecurity will arrive with another new insecurity needing another measure. They are deploying armed drones to secure the projected 100 billion bilateral trade over the CPEC passing through the remotest corners of the long-disputed region. To gain such strategic advantage they had hardly any issue in laying aside Modi’s peace overtures time and again which turn the great nationalist leader even liable to be a victim of the appeasement policy of the Chinese.

Patrolling Point 14 is also an eyesore to them as it lies on a ridge overlooking the Galwan River Valley. The said river joins the Shyok River a few Kms down west along which the DBO roads moves up north to reach the highest airstrip in the world. As we have said the Daulat Beg Oldie airstrip is just 10 km away from the CPEC corridor running into Pakistan occupied Kashmir. If India allows this observation post, the army supplies to the DBO airbase would directly be at the mercy of the Chinese.  

As the Indian verification patrol found the structure still there in violation of the terms of the agreement, they removed both the tent and the observation post. A brawl and fist fight broke out. Reinforcements from both sides were called in. About 600 troops from both sides were engaged in the bloody brawl and hand-to-hand combat. In the first wave of clashes the brave CO and his 20 troops overpowered the Chinese post keepers. But something was felt missing. The CO realized that these were not those regular patrol troops whom they get acquainted with during their routine sorties. Face-offs between troops, who are used to see each other in the same area, have less likelihood of escalating into bloody brawls. These soldiers had been redeployed from another area. The CO realized this and decided to go and check the PP 14 further up in the valley. He called reinforcements and with his 80 troops went to check out PP14. Here 250 Chinese soldiers had taken vantage positions and had planned an attack with their contrived hand-held weapons. In this round of skirmishes, the CO and two of his soldiers fell to the Chinese attack.

The CO is revered as a father figure and draws immense loyalty from his subordinates. As the Indian troops found their CO Sahib has fallen, whom they take as a godfather, they fought with unheard of spirit in a spirit of revenge. Further reinforcements were called. Given better roads on their side, the Chinese could muster up 400 troops against 200 Indians. Chinese could move more swiftly because they have developed head roads to the heights. Indians have to track along treacherous valley slopes to reach here. No wonder, the Indians were outnumbered 2 to 1 as the scuffle spread to nearby narrow ridges overlooking the river. In addition, the Chinese had subtle additions to their hands this time. They had knuckledusters, lethal batons, spikes and nail-studded baseball bats. The mountain ledge gave up on both sides and caved in resulting in a landslide. Troops from both sides fell into the river. A section of Indian troops were stranded on the other side. In subzero temperatures, drenched in water, at an altitude of above 16000 feet, they stood their guard to stop the Chinese from taking over Patrol Point 14. Many froze to death. In the bloody seven hour standoff, three staggered bloodied melee type clashes took place. 

It is safe to believe that China lost double the number of soldiers despite their numerical superiority. The next day bodies were exchanged. It’s but commendable that both sides refrained from using guns even though they had weapons with them and even in the face of life and death struggle abided by this law. But the Chinese are a bit far from the rules of engagement even here as they used those brutal contrived barbed and nailed batons and rods. India it appears has finally decided to stand up to repeated salami slicing technique of the Chinese through repeated intrusions.  

As details of the bloody scuffle keep percolating from the barren lands of Ladhak, it emerges that our soldiers, although outnumbered in quantity, fought really well. Every Indian platoon has a Ghatak Dasta of young soldiers well trained in martial arts and hand-to-hand fighting. According to reports, they broke the neck of at least 18 Chinese soldiers. China now decides to get their soldiers trained in martial arts. The Indian soldiers will also get riot gear like batons and body protective suits to be better equipped in future brawls. As of now, it’s a show of strength with both sides marshalling thousands of troops along the LAC including tanks, helicopters, fighter jets, missile systems and artillery guns.

In modern warfare, you actually don’t fight. You just try to appear too strong and militarily equipped to puncture any design against you. Posturing and propaganda helps a lot in this. Here again, in both these departments a communist regime uses these elements with better effect given their inherent aggressive nature. Simply through posturing the communist regime in China have grabbed many territories from many countries without firing a single bullet.  

An army operating in a democratic set up is more responsible under a political leadership. However, the face-offs in treacherous slopes are pretty tricky. You just cannot go there with a predetermined set of civilian instructions. It has been a big handicap with the Indian army so far in managing the volatile situation popping up with new claims and renewed efforts at changing the previous status quo. The army has been given “complete freedom of action” to handle the situation along the LAC to manage the emergency at their own level. It may be easily interpreted as a clear signal to the commanders that they may not feel bound by the clause of no use of firearms. 

What makes the scuffle standout from the routine browbeats is that Chinese appeared to have premeditated a bloody attack as they used iron rods and nail-studded clubs. Apart from smashed heads and broken necks many soldiers from both sides fell into the icy river in the dark. A few of the Indian soldiers, who were stranded on the opposite bank of the river after the landslide, were captured by the Chinese but were released after three days of captivity.

As the hostilities erupted around the LAC, the Indian military continued with its bridge construction a couple of Kms down the valley. The Bailey bridge was completed in just three days, allowing India better access to the site of the bloody confrontation. The prefabricated bridge built about 3 Km into the Galwan valley above the Shyok-Galwan confluence allows India to move its troop over the treacherous mountain valley to stop the Chinese from filing into the valley and move towards the 255 Km road from Darbuk to Daulat Beg Oldie, which is India’s last military post far in the north just to the south of Karakoram pass.        

The PLA’s Western Theatre Command has been pretty proactive in its push into India leading to many verbal spats, stone throwing and culminating in the 7 hour long violent standoff. All this is just and just meant to unilaterally alter the status quo on the LAC. They have mastered the craft of assertively crawling ahead along the disputed lines and then pull back only to come back again and all along this time declaring full faith in peaceful negotiations. Not to mention, all along this time, they develop infrastructure which gets shadowed by the talks. In this long and protracted scuffle, they ensure that their cartographic creep turns a de facto reality. Do you still need more proofs how a land mafia state operates? 

These are the first Indian casualties against China since 1975. People of course are up in arms against China. Boycott China chorus builds up. Instead of killing Chinese soldiers we can take economic measures to deny them access to the vast Indian market. Many a Chinese product face anti-dumping action alongside Indian Air force and Navy mulling over contingency measures in skies and the seas to tame the fire-breathing dragon. We need to pause and demarcate a line between the PLA and the political wing of the CCP. There is a broad anti-India understanding across all wings of the CCP. However, even within the same pool of animosity against India, the PLA appears to be more rigid on India than the political leadership.   

China had been pretty assertive in its troop build-up in Ladhak region for the last two months and then they laid claim to entire Galwan Valley. By force first they managed a coup and established military presence in some disputed region, followed by staking claim to the same. They have a roomful of issues to torment India with, including expectation that India must not in any way come in the way of choosing the next Dalai Lama and India’s role in calling for international investigation into the ‘zoonotic source’ of the virus along with the route that led to human infection. They are also wary of India consolidating its position as a responsible democracy in shaping the post-Covid world order. India of course can spare responding strategically instead of being carried over by blind sentimentalism. India has the option of taking a stronger position on Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The partnership with the US is now a necessity not choice anymore. Dilly dallying with unsure mind about QUAD will not help anymore. Operational principles of QUAD need to be turned into a permanent arrangement.

China undoubtedly sees India as a political, economic and military competitor. China has refused to demarcate the LAC after many years of border talks. The issue is kept open to be exploited repeatedly as per the change in situations. Dichotomy is that China is India’s largest trading partner but the biggest challenger to its rise at the world level. It makes it really tricky. India is of course putting many things under a scanner now. Trade deficit appears more unbearable in company with trust deficit. India has swiftly changed foreign investment rules requiring governmental clearance of any investment by any country sharing land border with India. It was done in scared desperation as India got on its knees while fighting the pandemic and China eyed taking over many an Indian company. Thwarted on this front, the Dragon started knocking at the Himalayan borders.      

China usually flummoxes us with its moody swings and we always play it safe and guarded always mulling over the exact reasons for the Dragon’s latest change of mood. So, as it systematically nibbles down little slices of land along the disputed LAC, we are free to use our brains about the reasons for the same in the latest flare up: whether it’s to bully India into a neutral zone regarding international investigation into the origin of the virus, strike back against FDI restrictions, India’s effort to duly curtail the expanding Chinese footprint in its economy, to force India tow its line on the 5G issue, to thwart Modi’s infrastructural boost in mountainous border where it feels threatened of its own, just like a thief gets scared of a new police post in the neighborhood. Is it DSDBO road running along the LAC that has put chili to spoil its mood? We have a long list of speculations because the status quo has opened up a Pandora box of issues that the Red Bastion exploits almost at its free will. Irrespective of all the possible reasons, one thing stands beyond doubt that China is forcing ahead to unilaterally carve out more and more buffer zones, taking over still remaining strategic heights that remain after its heartfelt grab of strategically important heights along the now LAC in 1962.

The battles of 1962 also happened in these very areas where currently the armies are sitting down face to face. In freezing temperatures over the most inhospitable terrain, both armies had to withdraw to their bases as a harsh winter intervened among the hostilities. The Chinese were a bit better placed to keep occupying some strategic heights to serve their purpose. In case of India it was literally like flying to a different planet to defend its claims. There was no political boundary settlement and rounds after rounds of talks continued.

The region concerned bears colonial legacy as the Britishers left the area un-demarcated specifically. One line showed Aksai Chin as part of Jammu and Kashmir. There is another line called Macartney-MacDonald line to its west followed by still another to the west called Foreign Office Line. After 1947, these were left to self-specific interpretation of China, India, Tibet and rulers of Jammu and Kashmir. There are intertwining perceptions which are nice chess pieces for machinations, especially for the communists because they love this kind of bickering. The LAC is left unsurveyed and unmarked on the ground. Patrols and pitching tents can flare up tempers. But this particular tent is unacceptable to India as it allows the enemy to come down the Galwan Valley and choke the vital DBO road leading to the highest airstrip in the world from where they are keeping a watch over the CPEC.    

As India thought of softer versions of punitive strikes against China, they were already waging war at numerous unconventional fronts including Cyber attacks. There were sustained DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks on important Indian websites. DDOS strikes are malicious efforts to overwhelm a particular network by blooding it with “artificially created Internet traffic”. Banking and other essential services are major targets. Chengdu is PLA’s covert cyberfare headquarter from where many professional hacker groups also operate. Indian governments responded by banning 59 Chinese mobile applications including TikTok, SHAREit etc., on safety and privacy grounds as these allowed the Chinese to extract a large amount of users’ personal data.

Australia spoke against the Chinese hegemony quite openly so the dragon took potshots at the continental nation that is situated too far for it to create direct tension for it. Australian PM spoke about a ‘sophisticated state-based cyber actor’ launching comprehensive cyber attacks. So that is China for us, it launches viruses, cyber attacks and has 2000 missiles on its eastern coast to annihilate any military that tries to reach the mainland.

Richard Nixon, who broke the ice with the communist regime allowing it to enter the mainstream of globalization and thus laying the path for it mammoth rise in the following decades, mulled over his choice during his late life reflections that he might have in fact facilitated the path of creating a Frankstein Monster.

We can avoid blaming 'China' for all the recent time suffering world over. Of course, there is Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that is majorly behind what has seen us tumbling down most seriously since the WW second. However, CCP doesn't mean 'China'. China minus CCP leaves us 95% of Chinese who are people like anyone of us in the rest of the world from New York to Timbaktu going through the rest of various nations imbued in various socio cultural milieu. These 95% of the Chinese have suffered the most at the hands of the CCP. They have multigenerational family history of systematic torture. They need individual freedom and democracy. So hate CCP not China. Condemn the brutality of the CCP red-capped thugs not China because China is far bigger than CCP.

We cannot rule out a kind of military lapse before the situation leading to the current flare-up. Engagement with China had turned into appeasement under the present government. PM Modi has been to Beijing 9 times and met Xi Jinping 18 times since he came to power. He has been the leading Indian PM who has invested wholeheartedly in building ties with China. So if 1962 is betrayal of Nehru, Ladhak 2020 stands out as the betrayal of Modi. Nehru built up his poetic illusions of his Chinese outreach on the basis of his ancient history and civilization scholarship, Modi the strict taskmaster has been too vocal about the practicalities of business, bilateralism and peaceful coexistence. Or may be, as a powerful nationalist leader, Modi could feel some affinity with the strongman from China whose aggressive red ideology is itching to challenge the US all over the world.   

In the rarest of the rare slip of tongue, PM Modi erred in his assurance-giving spirit as he declared there has been no intrusion in our territory. A blunder I would say. In one phrase it legalizes the Chinese claims on our territory. Moreover, if there was no intrusion why has all this war kind hoopla going on for so long? Even if the Chinese have build up posts in the Indian patrolling areas, serving as a buffer among the two neighbors, that itself is an intrusion by default because in this case the new buffer will be pushed further West. So clearly it’s an intrusion. India has been very condescending to their persistent push into more and more of Indian territory. So I cannot imagine this type of Indian reaction if the situation is clearly limited to the patrolling areas only. There must be some intrusion clearly into the Indian territory. There is also a possibility that after the Indian upgrade in border infrastructure, our forces are better placed to go for more effective patrolling and this has irked China because it puts a sturdier resistance to their continuous nibbling at the edges like ant bites, piling up claims over a period of time, maintaining status quo in the guise of endless rounds of talks and meanwhile following the only objective of moving further into the Indian territory.     

As Monsoon mustiness builds up and Corona becomes a part of life—a kind of any other disease that kills some people—the only question that is being mulled over in military commander level talks is whether China agrees to the pre standoff position. China claims the entire Galwan Valley. India is quick to junk all these claims. China may take more time than we expect even if it decides to pull back at all. Ladhak is a sort of China’s Achilles heel, not because India can overpower it from here, but because it’s India’s geostrategic pivot point to reach out to Russia, Europe and Central Asia. Usually Achilles heel is about a weakness that can be exploited by the enemy. In case of China, Achilles heel qualifies to be anything that the rival state can use for its own pursuance of interests even without directly affecting or threatening China. Well, so much so for being an antagonistic state.

Both sides are engaged in diplomatic and military commander level talks. The show of strength goes on over both sides of the border. The weapons are flaunted to show what they might do instead of actually doing anything with them to let loose a chain of conjectures on the other side. No wonder, both sides have created a pretty effective theatrical show of military strength to make their audience happy and assuring each other a lot of mutual destruction if things escalate further. Fear of destruction is bigger driver for peace than any other consideration.

Deception is as much effective as a nuclear strike and the Chinese are the masters of the art. In the 1950, the Chinese official maps started showing Indian territories under its jurisdiction. To allay the apprehensions of the insecure Indians, they just casually told them that it has nothing to do with the ground reality. It was merely a hypothetical legacy of the past. But then it sowed the seeds of 1962. They will simply make a claim, intrude to leave a controversial footprint in the area, on a small scale, without creating a big flare up, withdraw for some time, and record the conflict as a kind of proof about their claim in future negotiations. Two steps forward, one step back, teasing the enemy, analyzing the opponent’s response, waiting, intruding again like hyenas, and still again and again, till you either give in or decide to fight. A lot is achieved by appearing to be ready for fight instead of actually fighting. Typical propaganda and posturing.

This time, India has been categorical about its stand of maintaining pre April status quo. It means Chinese army withdrawing troops, remove pillboxes, bunkers and observation posts from Galwan Valley, forward positions occupied by them in Fingers area and a few other friction points where they have sneaked in. The Finger Area is a cluster of strategic ridges along the northern bank of Pangong Tso lake. They have encroached and made permanent shelters in the erstwhile no-man’s land, stretching for 8 Km, between Finger 4 and Finger 8 where earlier the armies of both countries just patrolled to maintain it as a kind of buffer zone. It cuts down the area of Indian patrol parties near the areas that are full time under Indian occupation. The Indian claim Line is up to Finger 8; that of the Chinese is up to Finger 4. Claim and counter claim decide the patrolling points serving as a sort of rugged treacherous zones where there is always a possibility of things going crazy. There are a few such strategic locations along the LAC where they have pushed the ante to change the shape of the LAC. A proactive India under a strong nationalistic government wants to ensure that the days of nibbling over the LAC are over. The PLA has better reach from the plateau side. Their infantry has paved metaled roads to move. On the other hand, the Indian mountain troops get guerrilla warfare at high altitudes. Right now, air defence systems are active on both sides as fighter jets, helicopters and drones tear apart the blue apron of skies with their threat and war mongering curves. Missiles are deployed. India has built up troop deployment in forward positions pretty substantially. Meanwhile, India is furtively busy in building approach roads emanating from the DSDBO road to far off patrol posts in tougher reaches. This has irked China because regular Indian patrols lessen the chances of Salami slicing which is their favorite recipe in the ever-alive kitchen of cartographic intrusions.    

The US was surely expected to take India’s part and that too unequivocally which they have done not to disappoint a billion plus Indians who expect a lot now post Howdy Modi and Howdy Trump. The US secretary of state has termed CCP as a rogue actor that has threatened “the world’s most popular-populous democracy.” The US has pulled out 25000 troops from their German base to deploy them in the volatile east surrounding China. As far as Russia is concerned our massive arms purchases from Putin can at the most buy their neutrality in the current scenario. More the insecurities and tensions between China and India, the better for Russia because that means a boost to their weapons industry.

The US naval deployment changes the contours of the game from blue depths of off shore waters. The super carriers of the US Indo-Pacific Command manage far more than it appears on the surface with its forward marching submarines. There is every reason for China to be worried about what these naval assets can do. It’s not necessary that they will actually do something. Modern warfare is more about posturing with proven military assets, not necessarily using them. Almost all countries have such nasty weapons that it is agreed to just keep skirmishes within containment zones, otherwise mutual destruction is assured. The USS Theodore Roosevelt can choke the Chinese in Malacca Straits and the Bay of Bengal. The behemoth is three times larger than any other carrier and moves like an independent entity accompanied by its cruisers, submarines and destroyer squadrons. This and nuclear submarines can flex military muscles literally anywhere on the planet. After all, you don’t simply inherit the superpower status. One has to fight for it and fight even more to maintain it. The US drones have access to every square inch on earth, the drone spots the target, relays the message to a plane of the caliber of F-35, which in turn either shoots it or further passes on the message to some island based long-range missiles of the Marine Corps. China feels safe because it has deployed around 2000 long-range missiles along its cost. But to emerge as a superpower it has to rest assured on its attacking prowess also instead of just feeling secure at home. Even a lion sitting holed up inside the safety of its cave is no better than a cat that roams freely. Here the US is not only a lion, it moves freely also. The Chinese are cats and that too holed up in their cave.   

In our rat race to forge deadlier weapons, we have ensured that an all out war is the last option, however serious the issue is. So currently tedious rounds of military and diplomatic level talks are going to set up a process of disengagement. Notwithstanding claims and counterclaims, the exact position in the Finger area and Dapsang plains warrant concrete steps from the Chinese side because adhocism here can’t be digested by India. The Finger Area is a set of 8 cliffs jutting outward from the Sirijap range overlooking the lake. The PLA has erected pillboxes, tented camps, solid bunkers and many observation posts between Finger 4 and 8 which was earlier the buffer zone with Indian soldiers patrolling up to Finger 8 and the Chinese up to Finger 4. So the status quo was 8 Km of buffer zone. As per the de-escalation process, the Chinese will surely push the buffer zone into the Indian side. While we have been thinking, even at the cost of sounding appeasing the Chinese, along the lines of avoiding a full blown confrontation with China, their salami slicing techniques have fetched them gains over decades which a full blown war won’t have. They have made territorial gains, and in the guise of these small time clandestine missions they have achieved little by little and gaining what would have been impossible in one go. Shifting claim lines and crawling assertiveness, shameless exhibition of expansionism, maximalist territorial dreams are basically presented through innocuous salami slicing through military jingoism. Al this while they would talk of peaceful resolution of disputes. It has kept Sino-India relations at a level where they could eat the major chunk of consumerism offered by the massive Indian market also.

The Dapsang Plains lie south of the strategic DBO road near Karakoram Pass. It’s the local soft spot for the highest airstrip in the world at 16614 feet (taking India’s airplanes as near as mere 8 Km from the LAC) and the newly constructed road linking it to Leh down south. The Chinese consider the DBO forward base a threat to their own ambitious CPEC in which they have invested billions of dollars. So the PLA has mobilized a lot of troops in the forward areas to disrupt Indian armmy’s patrolling patterns in the region. When multi-pronged self-interests clash they create many points of friction, leading to fears, phobias and insecurities which in turn pump the arms race. The weapons pile up, without any real chance of doing the destruction. The swanky rhetoric and posturing covers almost 90% of the modern day war. And to excel in posturing and propaganda one needs more and more deadly weapons.

So there is pretty solid posturing on both sides at the moment. It is entertaining the respective audience through news channels. India has to make its posturing tangible and douse the flared passion of its domestic audience to make them feel victorious even though we have been at receiving end in the current controversy. India has moved three divisions to the forward posts, many squadrons of frontline tanks, mechanized infantry squads and making plenty of jingoistic noise through Sukhoi-30s, upgraded Mig-29 fighter jets, Apache attack helicopters, power-lifter Chinooks, super-lifter C-17 Globemaster, C-130J Super Hercules special operations aircraft, Ilyushin-76 heavy-lift planes, An-32 transport planes, Mi-17 utility helicopters, P-8I surveillance aircraft, M-777 ultra-light howitzers (sling-loaded to helicopters and set up on hitherto unreachable ridges and fire up to 30 Km), T-72/T-90 tanks and BMP-2/2K infantry combat vehicles. The air-defense system including supersonic Akash missiles has been activated in the region. High-end precision guided munitions have been ordered from the USA. Further, India is pushing Russia to deliver S-400 Triumf air defense missile system (which they have already sold to the Chinese). Validating their proactive approach to counter the ever-persistent Chinese nibbling at Himalayan borders like termites, India has ordered Rupees 40000 crore worth war materials including 33 new Mig-29s and Sukhoi-30s and Israeli surface to air missile system to deal with the contingency. India is trying its level best to acquire Predator B-drone from America that can do surveillance as well as target with laser-guided bombs and missiles. (Americans are although wary that their technology might be leaked to the Russians who have deep defense cooperation with the Indians.) All this posturing has helped primarily Russia because both China and India are running to pour more money in their pockets to buy the latest weapons.

Chinese are doing the same across the LAC. And amidst all this, the talks for disengagement are going on. One has to appear strong enough to make the opponent feel that the costs of undue aggression will be heavy to stop any misadventure. So weapons are better left unused and tried just for posturing and psychological push-backs. Meanwhile, firing another salvo from its expansionist cannon, China has claimed another chunk of land from the Bhutanese territory. The peaceful little kingdom is caught unawares as this new claim was never a point of contention.

Both the Chinese and the Indians are aware of the costs of the persistence of the stalemate. Apart from the deadly weapons that make it almost impossible for the two sides to go into even a limited war, they are wary of the impending winters if the stalemate persists even after September. The harsh winters leave hardly any scope for the two sides to maintain their forward deployment.

Apart from positioning its armed might along the border to send a message to the Chinese that no more nibbling at the border will be tolerated anymore, India has started some kind of economic offensive also. Chinese firms will be kept out of the highway projects, imports will be systematically discouraged, Chinese investments in MSMEs not allowed, upgradation of 4G telecom tenders to be kept out of the Dragon’s reach, etc. All this is going on as both sides are aiming for “expeditious, phased and step-wise de-escalation.”

Amidst all this, PM Modi visited a forward army post in the region and declared that the era of expansionism is over, while China still tries—and will continue, irrespective of come what may—its level best to change the status quo by intruding into the Indian side and changing claim lines to expand its territorial claims. PM is loved by majority of Indians and his word is taken on its face value. But even at the optimistic best his strategic messaging against the predatory tactics, which are basically aimed at eating little slices slowly without firing a single bullet, appears helpless in the face of the single-minded Chinese focus for more and more land.

People now say in jest that now we know why PM Modi has been so proactive in hugging Trump even though the latter appeared reserved in this brotherly gesture. Trump has proved that he considers Modi a dear friend as he says so many times. To tweak the Chinese ears, the US navy has deployed two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers to hold intimidating exercises in the South China Sea. Well, their vulnerability at sea. The US knows it. The Malacca soft spot turns the dragon jittery. The pressure appears to be paying back also as in the second week of July the Chinese have taken concrete steps towards disengagement by moving back 1.5 Km from the Galwan friction point. It serves as a sort of precursor to a kind of mild de-escalation. They are hesitant in moving back and have extended claim lines that lie inside the Indian territory as per the status prior to May 5. India is insisting that the status quo of May 5 should be maintained. The Chinese want to shift the buffer zone to the west along natural features and thus acquire the still remaining strategic ridges that they think make India in advantageous position.

Hours and hours of talks are intended to carry out a phased de-escalation by creating a 4 Km buffer zone at major friction points. For a few weeks there won’t be any patrolling by any troops from any side in the buzzer zone to avoid another face off. But again, China may already have succeeded in achieving its goals of pushing the buffer zone further west and thus maintain the new status quo. So it’s unlikely that Indian troops will be able to patrol in the areas where they had reach before April. And China will fight diplomatically tooth and nail to maintain this new status quo. Geographical features define patrolling points where rival troops patrol up to their lines of perception. It’s very easy for any side to blame the other’s patrol party as intrusion along the contested border. Meanwhile, to help the Chinese keep their mind focused on disengagement with a bit lesser gains than they thought while starting all this, the Indian Air Force is putting up a brave show of posturing by presenting its combat worthiness through all-weather, day-night combat flights in Ladhak. An assortment of frontline attack helicopters, fighter jets, multi-mission choppers are carrying out sorties to show their battle worthiness.

Now all the issues are melting into the boring and snaily talks of pulling back troops from the face-off friction points, a well verified retreat of both sides followed by withdrawing weapons and machinery to a consensual distance from the LAC, leading to the status quo. Chinese will be fools to have put us all this show (and further dent its international reputation) for nothing if the status quo was restored. They will have something as per their diehard principles of territorial revisionism. They remember the disastrous defeat suffered during Vietnam invasion in 1979 and hardly believe in an all out war to achieve their geographical ambitions. The goals that are conventionally taken to be achieved through outright fighting are achieved through trickery, disguise and clandestine surprise intrusions and justifying them through blank lies. For instance, they have literally changed the entire narrative in the South China Sea without using a single bullet. They have already got away with many illegalities even in the current situation. They ambushed an Indian patrol that had gone visiting the area to verify whether they had retreated as per a recent disengagement agreement. PM Modi may have used the Ladhak speech to create a hollow sense of jingoism and euphoria among the domestic audience to justify the disengagement process and portray it as something done from a position of strength. China will somehow salvage the revised status quo. At many friction points, the new buffer zones lie to the Indian side of border. Through long and protracted talks they will just play the irritating game of attrition, haggle, weigh down to finally keep sitting where they are according to the Chinese dictum “possession is nine-tenths of the law.” We should know, despite what went off in the Indian media, they have achieved what they wanted in Doklam plateau.

                        

A wild blossom under the shade of a pampered potted plant

O thou miserable Patriarchy, how pitiable and painfully exposed you stand! That was 19th century when Charles Dickens wrote Dombey and Son. The successful businessman Mr. Dombey could never see anything beyond himself, his son and the 'and' carrying on the patriarchal lineage of the house, Dombey and Son. The family patriach can hardly see his first born, a girl, growing in the same house. But that was inconsequential to the scheme of Dombey and Son. The young heir dies at the age of 6. It means an end of the cosmos for the distraught father. His world has come to an end. The beautiful 13 year old daughter exists no more than earlier. At funeral Mr Dombey hands over the instruction for the grave tablet. He has written the words to be put on the grave stone. The statuary hands him back the paper he has just read and says to Mr Dombey,
"Will you be so good as read it over again? I think there's a mistake."
"Where?"
The statuary gives him back the paper and points out with his pocket rule, the words, 'Beloved and only child.'
"It should be, 'son', I think, sir?"
"You are right. Of course. Make the correction."
Daughters have been sadly the wild flowers, blooming of their own, by the carefully tended nursery beds where many a decade are spent in nurturing a single male flower.

The Antigen of democracy against Corona Virus

After removing CamScan, the only Chinese application on my phone, I had the sadistic glee of an old monk in a Himalayan cave chuckling after throwing his rosary at a red-faced (red-capped in my case) monkey who has been up to intolerable nuisance since long. Well, certainly a loss for the monk. The beads broken and the equipoise displaced. I can't see much of a loss for the monkey because even with a slight bluish welt on its nose due to the rosary strike, it still is the same shameless monkey. One tiny strike hardly matters. In any case they keep on bumping their heads around all the time. They can't help. Chinese Communist Party will be what it's come any situation. They will keep their nuisance like the infallible laws of nature. But they will fundamentally change our behaviour, forcing monks to start throwing rosaries and paper tigers like me to delete Chinese applications. The world changes fundamentally to the challenges put up like the CCP. We should avoid committing the blunder of condemning China and CCP in the same vein. They are different. By targeting China enblock, the CCP cadres get support even from the CCP pessimists among the populace. Segregate CCP specifically and launch a diatribe against it. In that case, those Chinese who have suffered at the hands of the CCP will support the movement. Pick out CCP not China itself in you opposition. Who knows within a couple of years, 90% of the common Chinese population, will take up a stern stance against the CCP that is holding them almost captive. As I had said an year back, the West has to ensure that the bug of democracy, after striking Hong Kong, has to spread to the mainland. Give them the virus of democracy just like they have given the world Corona virus!

Animism: The Crest Jewel of Human Feelings

The one who has been systematically put last in the queue will stand first in the higher dimensions. Here systematization stands for a hobnobbing agreement among the majority to legalize the acts and deeds to dispel the inherent insecurity, hate and greed. No superstition or blind faith is involved when I accept this reality. It's just about karmic balancing. Among all the so called established and institutionalized belief systems and faiths, the one that has been put at the bottom--Animism-- stands first from the perspective of more elevated plains of existence. Contrary to our scientifically self-hatched truths and norms of front ranks and the last ones, Animism is scientifically, from the perspective of quantum physics, first in perceiving reality as it should at the level of our physical existence. Earlier I thought Humanism was the crest jewel of our belief system, but had to downgrade it the moment I realized that Humanism, even though talking of parity and well being among all Homo sapiens, stands on the flawed premise that creation is human-centric and hence it unleashed the futile chain reaction of Homo sapiens versus the rest in cosmos. The results we can see in the present world. It could not even serve the cause of the weak and the downtrodden among the Homo sapiens forget about the lesser species among the rest of existence. Feel free to condemn me as a Tribal era wretch, I am but more than happy to attribute living souls to plants, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena. If natural intelligence pervades each and every ounce of this common pool of energy, we cannot just reserve the domain of soul to our own bodies. There is just one soul, one energy, manifesting in countless ways ranging from the so called inert stone to the best brains on this planet or elsewhere.

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Still More Agonies

It started with the buzzword Corona in faraway China. It now establishes a firm foot in our history as Sars-CoV-2 causing the corona virus disease (Covid-19). As it ravages India in mid June, destroying all our hollow sense of victory that we derived from the number game that was somehow kept low due to the lockdown, all we can do is to take statistical help—like earlier, for we don’t have any other means as of now—in creating some artificial pride. At 2.9%, India’s fatality rate is lower than the world’s at 5.5%. Currently, Covid numbers have hijacked all sense of loss and victory, wellness and unwellness, growth and decay, and development and regression.

The politicians must have felt almost imprisoned, for they survive on sloganeering crowds. They are further spared their lung power as they prepare for election campaigning through virtual rallies. I wonder, screens may become more familiar than human faces.

The pandemic is in full rendezvous in India after the ease in lockdown. Everybody appears limping back to business, thoroughly battered and bruised. The old normal tries to stamp its sovereignty as people push and jostle like earlier. The new normal however has to be accepted. The world has changed. The Indian government has taken a gutsy step to lift the lockdown even when the curve is moving towards the peak. Let’s see where it leads to. Economy had to be discharged from its home quarantine because we had gone into the lockdown a bit early. And in the world we are acquainted with, money is more important than food, water and oxygen.

The disease is currently ravaging through thickly populated urban centers of Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. About, 60% of the cases are traced in Delhi, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu alone. Let’s see how do we cope with the coming peak of infections during the monsoon season. The infrastructural shortcomings which are grossly visible even during normal times will surely acquire horrible shapes during such emergencies.  

With the financial nerve-centre and the political backbone of the country lying seized by the virus the situation is indeed grim.     

The hospital situation has turned worse. Bodies have been left unclaimed by many families. It shows not everyone living under the same roof is a real family. Critically ill patients, gasping for breath like fish without water, are falling at the thresholds of hospitals and still not being admitted. Forget about poor people, well presented middle class people have been denied test and treatment matter of factly by many hospitals. Cremation grounds and graveyards are falling short of space to complete the last rites. Crematoriums have said no to cremate the bodies of dead Corona patients. These are the people who have decent medical insurance coverage, some even have still better benefits of central government health schemes, but still hospitals after hospitals are denying them admittance. One can very well imagine the condition of the poor who don’t even have such support on paper at least.

Covid-19 patients are literally left to die or recover of their own in hospitals. It’s utterly callous and insensitive. The bodies are left among the patients in the wards for many hours. On paper, you have no shortage of beds and medical facilities, but in reality there is chronic shortage of even the basic necessities. Sick elderly, cancer patients, pregnant women and sufferers of other lesser disease (non-Corona) are made to feel like they are healthy and normal requiring no healthcare facility.

The government hasn’t yet capped the Corona treatment fees of private hospitals, so they build big mounds of cash as the frenzy and terror about being testing positive builds up. An unbearable medical bill is a still larger calamitous event—bigger than any disease known—for the majority of Indians. Video grabs show how callously doctors treat the patients like they are pariah dogs. The stigma of a disease remains like it was hundreds of years back. Typhoid Mary (Mary Mallson) the asymptomatic Typhoid carrier captured and treated like the biggest evil doer, African-Americans supposed to be carriers of syphilis earlier and Aids, and of course the bell-carrier leprosy patients of ancient times who had to warn others of their arrival. Covid patients bear the legacy in their mute suffering.

The experimental juggling with medicines to treat Covid patients continues. Scientists are trying their level best to elicit an immune response from human trials and generate neutralizing antibodies. Despite many shuffling, unsure attempts to drop it from the shelf, the anti-malarial drug HCQ in combination with some other ones like Remdesvir and Favipiravir continues to hold some promise. As of now, the treatment is basically supportive for lungs, kidneys and heart including oxygen therapy. The force of Corona is so overpowering that other types of sicknesses seem to have suffered. Even cancer appears like something closer to humanity.

It appears we are afraid of Corona more than the death itself. Much as we stare at the doomsday scenario due to the pandemic, Delhi’s three municipalities have actually reported a 36% decrease in deaths during the months of March, April and May in comparison to the same period last year. One of the factors appears to be lesser road accidents during the lockdown. It further appears that other diseases seem to have taken a backseat for the time being. So if the total number of deaths has come down during the pandemic in comparison to the same period in normal times, how come the pandemic laid seize to all we stand for? Probably, it has increased the fear of death exponentially by etching its invisible booby traps at all touch-points around us. 

Good news for the poor people who face difficulty in getting Covid test done. In any case they are always ready to follow the proverb ‘something is better than nothing’. Where there is nothing in life, almost ‘everything’ becomes ‘something’. The loss of smell and taste have been included in the list of symptoms of infection byy the virus. The poorest of the poor have plenty of stench around their hut of misery and smelly frugal food also to carry out these poor man’s test kit, so they can try these if they feel some uneasiness building up. But will they ever forget the smell of misery and helplessness festering their scars when the state appeared to have abdicated its responsibility, leaving them walking the longest journeys of their lives to reach home, hoping that if death has to come, let it be at their own poor homes. They were running to die with respect with their near and dear ones and avoid a dogly filthy death in the urban ghetto.  

Another good news for them as they sit and sulk in their poor houses deep in the villages after escaping from the boiling frying pan of Corona in the cities, where they had gone to earn more and live more. The government plans to build 70000 Km of roads and five million houses to create employment opportunities for these jobless millions. Hope the intention jumps over the paper to materialize on earth bringing some smile to teary eyes.

In our country around 320 million children have faced the Corona consequences including messing up their studies. A brilliant 14-year old Kerala girl committed suicide because she couldn’t attend her online classes. The nefarious combo of patriarchy and poverty is always blocking the path of girl child in India. Even though enrolment rates have gone up, around 4 million girls are still out of school. Sibling care and household chores await them as schools shut down and exams get postponed indefinitely. Nigeria has in fact declared emergency as rapes increased by 300% during the lockdown. Gender-based violence against women and girls has multiplied. Many women could not access maternity services at hospitals, so they delivered babies at home. The newborns missed the customary BCG vaccine that helps the infants in developing immunity against preventable disease and infections.    

Releasing about 3000 prisoners on bail and parole from Tihar Jail to decongest its premises has provided new avenues for petty criminals convicted of snatching, robbery and theft. Habitual criminals are chiefly petty taskmasters busy in theft and burglary. They are the mediocre flies who can afford to hump off of the line of legality now and then without causing too big ripples. After getting released, which of course has happened many times in their lives, they have taken to increase their business. Self-interest and self-preservation comes natural to all species. We human beings have the capacity to stretch it beyond natural limits to infringe upon the very same right of others. We have done the same collectively to other species. The so called criminals, petty and big, do it at the intra-species level within the Homo sapiens.    

The pandemic has reshaped the nature of work in offices. The atmosphere is clouded with pay cuts, jobs on the line, layoffs and furloughs. Pets, gardening, cooking and time with family helped initially. But these things have come as exceptions, or a kind of adventures. But when they become routine, they too turn stale and run to bite like anything.

Virtual meeting through Zoom, realignment of sitting pattern, elimination of touch points, sanitation stations, round-the-clock cleaning and sanitization, and of course work from home have emerged as the new normal. No wonder, people feel alienated personally and professionally. Sanitizing gels are more abundant than cups of tea and coffee and phenyl-reeking interiors kill the perfumed spirit. People coughing into their elbows will still be taken as full of white collar dignity. Gloves, masks, social distancing and floor marking now further widen the psychological distances entrenched in the minds of the modern humans, where all of us are fighting our terribly lone battles.

Lockdown birthdays and anniversaries went without cake. Video calls saved the world. What catastrophe would have befallen us if not for Twittter, Facebook, Whatapp etc?! Internet is the ventilator that has saved our modern civilization from being choked to death. It has saved more lives than any medicine or preventive measure has ever done! People have been trying to kill loneliness by funny poetry and weird watercolors. And of course tortuous is the nostalgia of that bygone era when people went out freely without masks! When we could mingle and hug with gay abandon. When crowds jostled in the markets and eateries were thronged like hungriest sheep in a fresh pasture. 

Brazil is the second worst affected country so far. The city of Sao Paulo is forced to deprive the earthen rights of those long dead to hand over the same to those freshly dead. The graveyards in Sao Polo are crammed to the gills. To clear space for the newly dead, the bodies of long dead are dug up. The bones of the long dead are dug up and stored in bags with tags in huge metal containers. That is the new home of the dead. To qualify to get the swanky new metal container grave, the bones should have remained under the earth for at least three years. They are afraid of tempering with the bones of those who went under the earth less than three years ago. It seems they have some fear that they may hit back, feeling insulted.

The BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement with its killer one knee kneeling posture and anthem of ‘I Can’t Breathe’ has generated a momentum that is now picking up in various domains of life including sports. In India, the situation is boosted exponentially as racism rides piggyback on casteism. The so called upper castes in northern India are relatively fairer than the so called lower castes. Indian sportspersons including cricketers and athletes have spoken out their experiences when they faced casteist-cum-racist prejudices. Noteworthy are the sad experiences of tribals and people from north east India. A former West Indies Captain felt the pinch of a potentially racist nickname given to him by his Indian teammate at the IPL. He has raised the issue belatedly and availed all the pending apologies and explanation by the scared Indian player. In a nutshell, people can’t be as careless about racism like earlier and need to be reeducated.

Closed-door sports, in the absence of riotous fans, of course will be terribly dull affair. The shouts will shift to people’s drawing rooms. The virulent virus has pushed the jostling athletes from the stage to do its own evil cameo. How will the athletes even boost their adrenaline in the absence of that ebullient atmosphere?

Sports are just like riding a bicycle. Their millions of repetitions of their usual move drill those moves into muscle memories. Surely the lack of action during the lockdown must have eased the bulging muscles of some bitter sweet memories. Hugs, celebratory high-fivs, handshakes, headshakes and all types of mingling will take a backseat till the vaccine arrives. Now the shouts of the players and instructions of the support staff will be audible as audience leer over them like peeping toms from their drawing rooms. The players have to mind their words. The video of course will borrow crowd noise from popular video games. Goal celebrations will be muted affairs if not from this doctored videogame noise imposed on the dull pictures. To give you an idea how hard it has become for the sporting world, the soccer coach of a prestigious club had to miss the game because he broke the quarantine rules and went out to buy toothpaste.

The best fashion as of now is PPE suit, glove and mask. The curves will take a backseat and plump winsome people will regain confidence. Body-shaming turns redundant under the new norms of the latest protective fashion.  

Riots will be riots, even if for a good cause. As mobsters loot shops and destroy public property, their armies on a spree to dismantle and deface the statues, monuments and other landmarks of slavery, colonialism and exploitation, Mahatma Gandhi has also been dragged into the matter. The messiah of peace is maligned by the mobsters as a racist. His alleged views about Africans during his stay there are dredged up to demand the removal of his statues in the UK. On the plinth of his statue, ‘racist’ was written. People have signed a petition in thousands to remove his statue in Leicester City.

The BLM campaign is moving like an avalanche taking all and sundry within its frozen grip. In Europe and America, people are breaking and beheading, vandalizing and removing the statues of explorers like Christopher Columbus and Thomas Cook. Churchill also is facing a lot of heat by the way. His big imperialist bloated face was smitten with mud and had to be mopped clean. Churchill and Co are not completely defenseless. They have their far right supporters apart from the police to save them from the rioters’ ire. Far right groups have gathered to save the historical monuments from anti-racism protesters. In the current spell of revolution, the monuments erected in the memory of eminent personalities who used slavery and racism to build empires are under the barrage. Rioters actually believe that they are rewriting history, while in reality it may count as just some fun time out to beat their individual frustration caused by their own deeds in life.        

A brittle and scattered present may help in laying the foundation of a firm future. The mayhem caused by Covid-19 pandemic can indeed be used as an opportunity to turn India self-reliant. The foreign-policies of all the major countries are being realigned from China perspective now. It shows the dragon’s resurgence. Twitter had to shut down 170,000 China propaganda handles. These were directly linked to the communist government to push and prod false information and malafied narratives over Covid-19 and the democratic movement in Hong Kong. Communist ideologues are the masters of coordinated disinformation campaigns. They are expert puppeteers in manipulating mass opinion through social media platforms, so pro-Beijing narrative is spewing through Facebook and Twitter. Their deceptive geopolitical narratives through info-graphics and slogans have raised a military style blizzard to confuse people world over. Meantime, China reports a few dozen fresh cases from Beijing. Who knows, what exactly the truth behind it is. It might again be deliberately managed issue to redirect the changing narrative in their favor.    

The fight to find a vaccine against the common scourge goes on with claims and consequent disappointments. Corona vaccine may be elusive so far, the scientists however claim to have observed the ‘fifth state of matter’ that was long ago predicted by Einstein and Indian mathematician SN Bose almost a century back. Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs) come into existence when the when the atoms of specific elements get cooled at absolute zero, 0 Kelvin or  ̶ 273.15 degree Celsius. At this low point, the atoms turn into a single entity having quantum properties, with each particle behaving like a wave of matter also. These might be the elusive link between the microscopic world of quantum mechanics and the macroscopic world of forces such as gravity. These may be the foot-soldiers of the yet unknown dark energy driving the universal expansion.  

There are expected to be new norms set for telling small budget stories. Well, Bolllywood on slim budgets appears like something tragic. Corona has the capacity to clip their wildest wings that earlier took their stories to cosmic extravagant levels. How will the famous Indian movies be possible with social distance norms in place? Imagine shooting intimate stories with social distancing norms! Aged actors not allowed on the scene, so either you have only young actors or funny looking youths acting weird oldies. Garish, lavish cinematic spectacle will be replaced by little intimate stories. And what will be songs without those hundreds of set piece musical with dozens of dancers?  

Sushant Rajput committed suicide. Being a brilliant engineering student, he had the guts to wade in the unchartered waters of dance and theatre. He danced in the shadows of illustrious stars in the troupe at award functions. Took another jump to lead roles in popular TV serials; to finally emerge on the Bollywood scene as a very fine young actor. His career graph looked promising. A commendable feat for someone who was a rank outsider without having any filmi connection. Full of energy, life and enthusiasm, he looked set to get in the league of established frontline actors. His dialogue in his last release Chhichhore makes it terribly ironical: “Suicide is not the solution to anything in life.” An alumini of Delhi college of engineering, he was passionate about science and outer space. He had purchased a plot of land on the remote side of the moon in a region known as the Sea of Muscovy. Titillating personal life, glitz, glamour all swirling so powerfully as to leave one dazed. People say the kingpins of nepotism in filmi world had totally sidelined him; he had lost some prestigious offers under the pressure of the coterie. They are well known names. Their reputation is too solid to be shaken by any allegations in this regard. It has started a debate about the flag bearers of nepotism. How he was perpetually made to feel outsider! His instagram post promoting his upcoming movie is haunting: “If you don’t watch it, they would throw me out of Bollywood. I have no godfather. I’ve made you (all) my Gods and fathers. Watch it if you want to see me survive in Bollywood.” The self-appointed gatekeepers of the castle of nepotism should take a notice of it. There is a gang-leader of the star-kid-brigade. He is very effeminate in manners and feminine in likes and dislikes, thus a darling of many star kids, but has lethal machismo of the brutal-most man on earth. No wonder, it turned out to be a terribly lonely place for the outsider boy from Bihar.