Coronavirus Lockdown India - 1

Life these days, is no less than a Hollywood movie script. Coronavirus named monster has taken over the world. Already engulfed 189 countries in the world so far. This is what today's world stats look like -

India counts at 396 cases so far & 7 deaths. We have been working from home from past 12 days. The entire state is under lock down till 31st March 2020. Yesterday we had our first curfew because of the disease (and first of my life).

Let me talk about how the life has been so far with this Coronavirus in last 2.5 months.

It all started with news about some contagious disease that originated from Wuhan, China in January (sometime before Chinese New Year). At that time nobody thought that it would effect life outside China so much. Working in Flipkart (Walmart company in India) we started getting request from Walmart officials to stop all online sales of masks and export them to China. We were in the process of doing exactly that when Indian government put a ban on export of masks and hand sanitizer. Honestly that was the day it hit me. Damn! we could be effected as well.

India Coronavirus cases

January 30th 2020 - India detected first case of Coronavirus in Kerala. Then 2 more cases on Feb 2nd & Feb 3rd 2020. All 3 in Kerala. We did not worry so much as Kerala has always been notorious for importing all exotic diseases. No new cases for a month after that. During this time, India started air lifting its citizens from all over the world. We kept hearing about countries like Italy, Iran, Japan, South Korea, USA, Spain getting badly hit by the virus. Kim Jong Un shooting one Coronavirus patient found in North Korea. The entire ship 'Diamond Princess' stranded between the Ocean and all 760 people infected with virus. China kept under reporting their numbers as usual. These days all we watch is news about #Coronavirus

Corona wave hit India on March 2nd 2020 - 2 new cases then 3 new cases next day and it has not stopped since then. Prime Minister announced One day Curfew #JantaCurfew as a trial for lock down few days back. Lock down was yesterday.

Lol! A small meme that I saw on Twitter yesterday.

Yesterday morning seemed like a silence before the storm but with a little music. The surroundings were so peaceful (because nobody was allowed to go outside) that I could hear birds chirping the entire day (which is so unusual in Bangalore). Animals must be wondering where did all these humans go?

It was all so peaceful until 5pm. That's when the Prime Minister has asked us to clap/show appreciation for all the people who are risking their lives to protect the entire population which includes all the health workers, police men, delivery guys, cleaners basically everybody who cannot stay at home. I saw all Indians united for the first time at 5 pm. People were there in their balconies clapping. There was no religion, no political agenda, just one motive - Appreciation and thanks. It was a very emotional moment. I had to literally hold my tears. For the first time I felt this country as one.

Corona doing some good so far.

Gender Equality? How far are we?

Ever faced gender discrimination at work? I believe every girl does at some point or the other. Statements made as a joke or judging the capability to promote or questioning the time management to balance family and work or just rejection of female candidates despite their skill sets - to state a few. Most of the incidents are never reported because after all who wants to risk their career for something that does not impact them

What is the point of celebrating Women's Day when the companies are unable to incorporate the true value of it? The celebration is mostly like a checkmark in the list of annual events.

India has only 3% of women in leadership. Seems correct! After all only very few women get all perfect conditions to pass through the funnel of hardships and discriminations that starts from birth.
1. Yay! A girl is allowed to be born and see this world
2. She gets the opportunity to get primary education (70% female literacy rate, 82% male literacy rate)
3. She is allowed to pursue higher education
4. She is allowed to pursue a career by her parents (27% female workforce in India. World average is 48%)
5. She is allowed to pursue a career by her husband & in-laws
6. She gets support from family to continue the career post-childbirth
7. Makes her way through this cruel gender-biased corporate life

These thoughts might seem feminist to a lot of people but these are some of the struggles that all women go through. We need society education at all of these above steps to help women grow. We are not just loosing as a society in terms of values but also monetarily. As more and more women join the workforce they will contribute to India's GDP and family income.

Bengali New Year

New year, new dreams and new hopes. Every coming year makes me evaluate the passing one and make plans for the new one.

I would not say 2017 was a great year. It was not bad either. Few good things happened in life but nothing to be proud of. The best thing that happened was that I improved my relations with my mom and the best thing that I did was that J finally joined the gym.

I spent this New Years in the wonderful city - Kolkata. The city and its people are quite unusual than rest of India. They believing in appreciating the family, and enjoy each occasion that can remotely recall for a celebration. They love travelling. But most of all they love their food. I think love would be an understatement though, people here live to eat.

I was visiting family and we decided to walk to Kalighat temple on New Years eve. Across the span of 1km, there were around 20 parties with loud music of all sorts - "Deepacito" to "Chalti hai kya 9 se 12" to "Saat samandar paar". Every 4th house had full size woofers and made sure everybody knew they are celebrating. I have never seen such enthusiasm in any other city. Overjoyed (and slightly deaf by loud music) we decided to go to Park Street (it's the place where all youngsters go). Streets were jam packed with people to see the lighting on the road. Restaurants had hours of waiting list. This was Kolkata during festive season - joyous and excited.

Normal day Kolkata - the metro starts at 7:30am and close by 10pm. Offices close early. People take break for hours during lunch to enjoy their meals, an occasional 'puchka' on stalls outside their offices. In my life I have never seen so many elderly men on puchka and momo stalls.

I love the peace and work life balance that the people in this city have. They are clear on their priorities in life and enjoy life to the fullest.

Love the city. Kolkata! Looking forward to be back soon. :)

You taught me a lot. This 2018, I pledge to prioritize things in my life.

Poem dedicated to me by my would be

जब से गई हो तुम

कुछ बदला तो नहीं
लेकिन सब बदल सा गया है

Coffee में जितनी भी शक्कर डाल दूँ
अलसाहट दूर नहीं होती

चाय वाला रोज़ तुम्हे देख कर खुश हो जाता था
पता नहीं क्यों अब नहीं मुस्कुराता

वो 5 flavour वाला पानी पूड़ी वाला
उसके सारे flavour फीके से हो गए हैं

वो रात को टहलना
तुम्हारे बिना सज़ा सा लगता है

Lake जिसे देख कर तुम्हे शान्ति मिलती है
वो पता नहीं क्यों सूखने सी लगी है

पिल्ले जिन्हें तुम मुझसे रोज़ लड़ के parle g खिलाती हो
अब parle g से उभ गए हैं

वो पीपल जिसे तुम पानी डालने जाती हो
सूखता जा रहा है

वो वक़्त जब तुम रोज़ मिलने आती थी मुझसे
बेमाना सा हो गया है

घडी में बस टाइम बदल रहा है
जीवन में समय नहीं बदल रहा

आ जाओ की किसी को हंसी मिल जाये किसी को स्वाद
किसी को सुख मिल जाये तो किसी को चैन

आ जाओ की मुझे तुम मिल जाओ

और मैं, मैं जैसा हो जाऊं ।

Independent or dependent on servants

Women should be treated equal to men... women of this age are independent.. + 10 other feminist views that all of us (or at least I) have educated at some point of time. But do we really understand what it truly means? Somewhere between all this hype around feminism modern generation women have taken things differently. We feel much more powerful (and more = man) when we perform in a work environment but feel shameful when its a household task. I have seen many who doesn’t even know basic things like cutting a fruit or making tea. The worst thing is they feel proud about it. Why not they are so called “Working independent women” and there are lot of services available in the market who will take care of all these basic necessities “if you are ready to spend”. Big basket will deliver freshly cut fruits and vegetables, Swiggy will deliver cooked food, housejoy can send people to clean your house and what not. These startups have tapped into the right market of laziness and arrogance.

I am not saying that only women are expected to know household stuff. These skills are equally important for male and female to survive alone. I remember my father always helping out my mom whether it be cooking food or washing clothes (because my mom had 4 kids to take care of). When my father got transferred to a village, my mother stayed back in Kota for 15 years so that she can make 4 IITians out of us. All this was possible only because my father knew how to take care of himself without being dependent on anybody. This is called being an Independent person. We cannot call ourselves “Independent” when we are so much dependent on others to do the task for us.

There are characteristics of a women that differentiates them from men. And one of them is the nurturing nature. All mom/ghar ki yaad videos get a lot of attention these days but have we ever thought how our kids will deal with daily stuff when we are so much “Dependent” on our servants.