Thoughts — Infectious Disease

If you’ve been active on any form of social media or your phones, you have most probably seen a photo of someone, clad in winter clothes, posing in front of snow-capped mountains in Leh, Manali or Switzerland. Or you have seen someone rafting in a river, trekking in the mountains, dancing to a TikTok song in front of a monument, brunching or munching on street food in any place that’s not the city they were stuck in for the past 4 months.  I saw it too and it made me pick up my phone and make plans with everyone I...

Do you remember the time when the Covid-19 pandemic started? Remember when the daily death toll would actually frighten us? When going out for groceries felt like a battle on its own? When all everyone could talk about was the virus?  When the pandemic began in Feb 2020, most of us were on the edge of their seats, waiting for any news that would make us feel more prepared for the next day. We were concerned for their co-workers, friends, family and ourselves. We followed all the safety protocols to the T, because following them before we stepped out of our home...

Have you ever wondered how different the pandemic would have been if active and engaging conversations around mental health had not taken place? This year as the world shut down physically, online platforms were flooded with people coming out in support of one another. A  topic of conversation that was quite prominent was about mental health. Today, as COVID-19 has impacted all of us in different ways, discussions around mental health are becoming increasingly common, and more people are reaching out for help. Being in a lockdown and pandemic, there was a sense of isolation that was felt by all,...

Let’s say it out loud already, 2020 was hard! Our phones kept pinging with anxiety inducing news, it would not end and it just seemed to go downhill from there on. We were always on high alert, our bodies always in a fight, flight or freeze response. And what’s worse? We still cannot say with certainty what comes in 2021. Does it get better or worse?But while we might keep going down that road that stresses us out and makes us anxious repeatedly – let’s look at another winding road, with lots of ups and downs but an important road...

On a usual day, without the virus, you’d get home and go straight to your room. Interaction with your family is almost minimal. Even when you do, at most it is small talk about how a certain cricketer is doing or how a certain politician is functioning or anything that is impersonal enough to be in neutral territory. Despite this, difference of opinions rise and you are not able to keep your cool in a discussion that inadvertently ends up becoming a fight. This fight might lead to a constant cycle that spurs even lesser interaction.If this sort of tension...