#covid 19 in Mumbai

[wanderingthedesertalone]

Corona Alone a Diary Revisited: An American’s Experience of the Covid Lockdown in Mumbai 

Lockdown In Retrospect

Mediocre Graces: In any case, by the end of the Pandemic, I had somewhat been restored to good graces, not that I was ever greeted in Anand Nagar(8) at least with the Atithi Devo Bhava(11) spirit, I got on the good side of the local gang and befriended a Muslim woman who sells fish in a roadside stall, but it was too late, lonesomeness and faithlessness in humanity had grabbed a hold of me. Sadly, I am no longer able to speak to the fish merchant. She married, her husband is conservative and doesn’t allow her to speak to men.

On Lonesomeness: It’s worth noting that many endured the Corona epidemic in complete isolation. According to The Wall Street Journal, 35.7 million Americans, including myself, lived alone (Byron) around the time of writing the first journal entry. However, not just did I live alone, I was an expat, I lived alone in Mumbai, India. Regardless of the negative stigma that goes along with living alone, solitude never bothered me, in fact, ever since I was divorced, in 2012, I’ve preferred to be alone. Besides, I could always grab a cup of coffee and talk to strangers, I have the gift of gab when needed, but the double-whammy of isolation and becoming a pariah had pushed me to the brink of insanity. I’ve come to believe that those things that don’t kill us make us weaker and since the Covid outbreak I’ve become impatient, nervous and have lost faith in humanity, as I’ve already said.

Too Much Fluff: In all, the NPR article is woefully misguided and simply tried to make a buck off of Covid lockdowns, like so many other news outlets were doing at the time. A better story would’ve been on those who live alone before the Pandemic, whether for reason of mental health, a willful solitude or social ineptitude, that chronicled each persons’ descent into madness; I despise fluff journalism, maybe because it reminds me of the way that Bollywood paints India as an endless serene landscape of humorous follies in love that can easily be overcome when it’s something else all together, not easily, or that I would like to, put into words. This isn’t just fluff, there’s comedy for sure, there’s humor in all tragedy but there’s a reason for sharing the gritty details of lockdown in India, I feel it’s important to share these stories lest we live them again! In the past year, I’ve filled 6 volumes with recollections of lockdown, I hoped to get them published by a newspaper, that failed.

Diary Excerpts and Commentary

A Note to the Reader: The following excerpts are from the journal of an expat living in Mumbai (recorded between Feb 2019 and Feb 2021), during Covid lockdown(1). Dates have been replaced with titles because, unless indicated in commentary or prose, they’re irrelevant:

It Begins: There’s a few cases of Covid in China and other places but I’m not too worried, this will have as much effect on me as the 2003 SARS outbreak(6), there’ve been many such scares in my lifetime. Besides, I caught the virus from a wedding party in Sri Lanka, it was like the Flu, high fever, mild delirium and a little trouble breathing. Interesting thing about Sri Lanka, all of the land and wealth seems to be in the hands’ of the Nords, the locals have very little and the price of food is like that of America or Europe. Also, airport authorities took a child’s Queen Conch shell away right before boarding, she was clearly enamored by her seemingly magical wave machine. After they took it from her, she cried all the way back to Mumbai.

The Flasher: A few Covid cases have been confirmed and I’m beginning to feel like an unwelcome guest in a foreign land, an unusual notion in a land where the locals say “Atithi Devo Bhava(11).” Typically, Indians are hospitable, on my travels to the South they were, of course, taxi drivers tried to scam me there, but cabbies the world over are a special breed of scum, you should’ve seen the way they took me to the wringer in Hong Kong, hospitality is a source of national pride here. This afternoon, there was a knock on the door, it was my landlord. I found myself baffled by what he said. I opened the door and he began to speak, timidly and slowly in broken English: “there’s been a complaint,” he said. “What’s wrong?” “A man is walking around outside naked.” “Oh, I see. Thanks for informing me,” I said and shut the door, believing that he was telling me of a dangerous predator lurking among this slum’s numerous tightly knit alleys at night. Later, I came to find that the landlord was attempting to tell me that the neighbors had accused me of going on moonlit strolls in the buff, I was the predator. I was shocked and enraged when I found that I was, according to gossip, a flasher, but consoled myself by telling myself that none of this is the landlord’s fault, he just wants to prevent other tenants from rioting. People are scared and looking to point a finger at an invisible assailant. This will be forgotten quickly and my name restored, I guess it’s not contradictory to be both hospitable and two-faced. Why do I care about my reputation in a slum? I don’t want any trouble.

Last Days of Freedom: Worry has set in, even chain restaurants no longer accept cash, not from me at least, I tried to buy something to eat with good ol’ paper money at McDonald’s and they refused to serve me. Worse luck, as the Chinese say. I’m working on a project here and I’m paid in cash, so credit isn’t something I have access to. This doesn’t just affect me, a large portion of the population is paid, untaxed of course, in cash and most likely doesn’t have a bank account. Also, everywhere I go my temperature is taken.

Days of Optimism: Lockdown began, I went to get groceries for the 2 days that we are told we must shelter in place and plan to go to bed early. There was hoarding and ransacking of shelves at the local grocer, but I’m sure that it’s just hysteria and this whole thing will end soon. Another interesting thing happened at the store today, two women got in a fight over the last box of cookies, the first woman, a pudgy mother with a bad attitude towards everyone that I had had the bad luck of having a few encounters with before, used to admonish me saying “smoking is a bad addiction,” I wagged my finger and said “sugar is a bad addiction,” laughing my way out of the store. It was the first time I’ve laughed in days, I’ve been in a daze, everything is quickly changing and feels so dire. The fowl woman, she lost the battle and the box of cookies. A word about change, I’m often told that nothing changes in this little hamlet and I believe it. It’s hyperbole, things change here, but slowly, there’s digital gadgets for sale, but there are also oxcarts that sell food and other remnants of the past. It’s not that nothing changes, It’s that time seems to go by slower here, like the locals heartbeat at a slower pace. I always feel rushed but they take as much time as the seasons.

Two Days In: The two days passed, but lockdown continues, the food I bought didn’t last. Even worse, I wasn’t informed that lockdown part 2 had begun without the first installment ending, I slept through the grocery shopping time, 6AM. I snuck out for an evening walk despite lockdown, 2 interesting things happened on my covert walk, I saw many others outside as well, they all spoke of the cow that wandered into the open air temple that’s adjacent to my apartment complex, some are feeding here, even the Muslims, having taken up many of the folk traditions of the Hindus they live among, agree that a sickly heifer wandering into the temple is a good omen, the other interesting thing, The Green Eyed Lady (an Indian with green eyes) made me some Khichdi(24). There were also Chinese in Haiden, Beijing, a district home to many Russians, who have green eyes. Isn’t genetic splendid? In any case, the woman asked me if I had eaten, usually more of a salutation than invitation here, I said “no,” so she brought me a bite to eat. The food supposedly heals the sick.

Big Changes in a Little Town: Since implementation of the Janata(5) Curfew, many continue to sit along alleys in large groups or participate in sports, not wearing masks(4). Yet, as I walk enroute to purchase groceries, these intrepid individuals say “here comes Corona” and cover their faces with their dupatta(7) or a handkerchief. This change of attitude towards me is, although slight, I’ve always had my fans and detractors here, is palpable. Maybe it’s just my nerves. Before lockdown, I sometimes played Teen Patti(19) with neighbors at least, never understood the rules though. Anyway, the shelter-in-place decree will be lifted on Passover, this must be a good omen, not that I sincerely believe in such things, I think to myself and reiterate my resolution to weather the storm in Mumbai. One concern about the transmission of Covid, Indians don’t have a sense of proximity, they always crowd.

One Good Deed: The endless bad news has left me exhausted. A few thoughts before bed, having lived in other parts of Asia and meeting many people from Europe, India is like America in one way, heterogeneity. It’s a type of melting pot, not a melting pot of strangers from far off lands but a mixture of old kingdoms, who have their own languages and cultures, forced under one, possibly too small, umbrella. Adding it up, Indian society, due to its long history, caste system and numerous religions is exceedingly complex, for example Muslims created the first free public institutes of higher learning, yet in some regards they’re treated like would-be separatists (Khurshid). Thinking about the day’s event, I sit on the small broken cot that’s my bed, I have to get this fixed soon, it’s interesting, the cost of handwork is very cheap here, in the US, anything that artisan might do is expensive and it’s more cost effective just to throw the old away. I’m reminded of this Chinese woman I met in Beijing, she told me “I’m not Han(23).” “Interesting, which ethnic group do you belong to?” “I’m Miao.” “Is there anything unique about the Miao?” “We don’t eat dogs. All Chinese people are the same, we are one people, the only difference between Han and Miao is that we don’t eat dogs.” I was teaching adult English at the time for extra income. India is more like America than China or Europe, diversity is endless.

Anand Nagar Has a New Song: The decree wasn’t lifted. Another day, thousands more Covid cases and locals have begun to shout “go home Corona!” Despite the taunts, I’m staying where I am. I don’t have much of a choice, there aren’t any flights anyway, the airports, in a panic, have shut down, everything, with a mere 2 day warning, has come to a grinding halt. I guess this isn’t merely more sensational media. Besides, the situation is becoming bleaker in the US and airports are havens for communicable diseases, they pack people in, from all over the world, like sardines. Have you ever seen the projected distribution of an epidemic? It all starts with airports. Resolute that this virus will blow over, I buckle down for the Summer of Corona in India.

Foreigners Have it Too: Nothing good has come from lockdowns so far, it has fostered hysteria, mob mentality, greed and anti-foreigner sentiment. This “City of Dreams,” has become a nightmare! The nation has fallen into the clutches of fear of contracting the virus from a foreign national. Hysteria, I tell you! I only hope that this all ends soon. Despite an anti-foreigner hysteria, according to The World Health Organization there are a total of 1637 people infected by Covid-19, a mere 49 of which are aliens(3) (The WHO). Yet, the locals blame it all on Tablighi Jamaat(13)(BBC), why not? Trump is calling this outbreak “The China Virus.” The borders have closed, looks like I’m staying here for a while, I didn’t plan on leaving anyway. Besides, there’s talk of easing restrictions. Back to the human condition, I had always been considered an outsider here, I had always been greeted with mocking and mistrust, to some degree, but there were those who accepted me. The first day I arrived the children called me names and adults mimicked the way I speak with derisive tones and gestures, I guess imitation is the highest form of flattery? I despise epigrams, I really do.

Nostalgia for Slightly Better Days: Before lockdown, there was a woman with a fish tattoo on her arm who often invited me to play cards but I shied away from her after neighbors had told me that she “accuses people of rape to blackmail them for money.” I don’t usually listen to gossip but wanted to play it safe. Other than that, I was at least invited to weddings, funerals and dances during the Graba(22) celebration. Funny story, the first year I refused to dance, a man jokingly told me that if I dance with a girl I have to marry her. I didn’t actually believe him, I’m not that gullible, I’m just not fond of Indian music. Back to the present, it’s not the time for nostalgia, although I can’t think of a better pastime right now, maybe if foreigners in India practice social distancing, unlike the locals, they won’t catch the virus and the stigma will dissolve. The other night I went for a walk just to break the monotony of watching time go by and hoping the world would heal. This morning, I was again accused of perverse behaviors by my landlord. I wasn't walking the alleyways naked, but I am being watched. On the walk, locals barred the alley and told me “no foreigners allowed.” Yet, they daily gather to play Cricket while sentinels watch for cops so that they can quickly disperse.

There’ Gestapos In This Movie Too: I guess I should mention something good too. Lockdown has caused a sort of hush here and now daily I can hear the sound of an infant being bathed through the one tiny window my studio apartment has. Through the 4 foot square aperture I can hear the infant laughing as warm water rushes over it. I now hope that things will return to the way they were before, just subpar not “holy crap the world is on fire and we are all going to die!” A combination of police and concerned citizens, working with the police, now stand along the main road with bamboo canes in hand. They remind me of stories my grandfather told of the Gestapo. Both are poised for violence. The police, they resound the sentiment of the concerned citizens, ridicule the foreigner. Now, I usually get an escort, something that is only afforded to me, to stop “roaming” as I go to get essentials. There are now dots painted on the sidewalk, we are supposed to stand on them to ensure social distancing, the locals don’t obey this. If I do the same, I’m informed, thwack would go the cane. I’ve begun to see in black and white, not metaphorically but literally, I feel as though I’m watching a movie about a distant authoritarian time. The brutalist architecture(24) is reminiscent of Russia and North Korea, it doesn’t take much imagination for the arabesque attributes to obscure. I haven’t slept much.

Building a Wall: This hamlet is bluffed by a river by a river on one side with a small foot bridge for crossing into Neilam Nagar. The police have blockaded the entrance to the crossing and are building a wall to, I believe, keep the several hundred thousand impoverished residence of this hamlet trapped like mice on a sinking ship. I truly fear the wall, perhaps it’s because of my education, having been forced to read the line ‘Something there is that doesn’t love a wall(20),’ throughout school, it’s almost a national anthem. Walls and golf courses have always seemed as despicable things to me. Neither the rich nor the influential politicians are suffering the same as we are in the slums. They play golf in their gated communities…

The First Stone Tossed: As the situation in India worsens, so do the jeering. Now, a few individuals throw rocks at me, a tactic usually reserved for thwarting the region’s menacing wild dogs, as I venture into the ever more dangerous streets at the permitted time, 6AM, to get essentials, in an attempt to diffuse their frustrations over the region’s spreading epidemic. Yet, returning to the political quagmire that is America keeps me hopeful that sheltering in Mumbai will become easier. Rocks tossed or not, I’m staying in place. Oddly, despite not eating much, I’m gaining weight, it must be stress. Supplies have run thin, some are hoarding and there’s talk of a 2 week prohibition on supply trucks entering Anand Nagar.

Insomnia: Depression has set in and money has mostly ran out. Immediately before lockdown, I was given a promotion but as of yesterday, the company I worked for has permanently shut their doors. I’ve just now realized that I haven’t left my house, let alone gotten out of the broken cot for days. I look at the clock, it’s 5:50 AM, the allotted time for shopping. Getting groceries at dawn isn’t a matter of waking at dawn; I haven’t slept in days either, just sat on this cot watching time go by. Insomnia is starting to take a toll, I’m beginning to hallucinate, time has lost all meaning, at times days go by in minutes yet other times, minutes last for a small eternity. It has been days since I’ve had a face to face conversation with another human.

Home Invaders: Somewhat dazed, I sit on my bed contemplating the meaninglessness of time when there’s nothing to do. Jolted from my daydream-like state, there’s a pounding sound on the door. The sound is getting louder. I hear shouting. The words come into focus, “foreigner, we’re coming in! We’re breaking the door down,” says the unfamiliar voices. I spring to my feet and bolt the door. The pounding becomes more and more rapid and fear takes a hold of me. But then I hear a familiar voice, the voice of my neighbor, she shouts something in Marathi and the marauders leave. I fall into a sleep and don’t wake for 2 days. Food was cut off for 2 weeks, I had to get a bite to eat from the Hanuman Mandir(18). They handed out plates of rice and lentils.

Vigilantes: Days go by and panic worsens among residents of this Mumbai chawl(8). Due to rising fears, vigilantes begin to safeguard the streets from “roaming.” These sentinels attempt to impose restrictions of their own device on me: they inform me that I am not permitted to walk along certain roads because they are afraid that I carry the virus, this happened once before on a late night walk but now it’s the norm, although I’m merely in search of a store to buy necessities and wearing a mask. In the end, these vigilantes won’t cause a reduction in hanging out on the street, this I know, but a few of this slum’s inhabitants get to feel empowered because they are the new sheriff in town. I guess we all need a whipping-post and there’s good among the wicked, a local temple and a few individuals are handing out grains to the needy. We are all needy here. At this point, the lockdown has gone on for months.

The New sheriffs in Town: Currently, there’s two police along Mumbai’s backstreets, those who were given authority by the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MNC) and vigilantes. Feeling harassed and completely rejected by society, loneliness takes hold of me, I begin to search for a way out of this “city of dreams,” maybe returning home while a buffoonish leader (Trump) who makes a mockery of the US isn’t so bad, I think to myself. All things considered, it’s nearly impossible to abide by laws set by both the government and a hysteric mob anyway.

No Payment Until April: At least I have a roof over my head, I think to myself, an article in Aljazeera, Foreign Tourists Face Hostility in India Amid Coronavirus Panic informs that an Israeli woman was evicted from her home in Goa due to locals fear of contracting COVID-19 and others were forced out of their hotel (Purohit), I can go a day without milk, but not without a bed, not to mention, the police had recently found tourists living in a cave because they are trapped in India and have ran out of money (NBC). I haven’t yet been evicted, but am also out of funds and live under constant threat of eviction. Rent payment is suspended until April (Delhi High Court). I lay on my broken cot, I will try to get it fixed on the black market, and continue to doom-scroll taking note of the day’s death tally and searching for any sign of things getting better. Passover has passed but Covid hasn’t.

Nobody Goes Home for That Price: I do some research and come to find that the US Department of State is offering “repatriation flights,” these flights carry a $2000 price tag (a promissory note for the aforementioned amount must be signed before boarding the plane) and a random port of arrival is where I’ll end up if I choose to return home through the ever so benevolent government, how can anyone pay this price during a Pandemic (this thing has been upgraded to a Pandemic, how lovely words are). Upon arriving at this port, the returning expat must find their way home through barricades and the threat of being infected by Corona (Genter). I harden my heart and again resolve to weather the storm in Mumbai. Besides, if the promissory note isn’t paid, I will be banned from international travel. I’m a Digital Nomad. I travel, work at an incredibly low rate and can only afford to survive in developing countries.

August’s Heat: The death toll jets upward and 75 degree angle, it’s updated daily. While bombarded with an endless stream of bad news, jeering has morphed into threats of violence, sleep is still a rare occurrence, heat rash has caused the parts of my body covered by clothing to become as freckled as Little Orphan Annie, I’m as poor to boot, my field of vision is filled sprawling geometric patterns and my temper is quick.

Worse Than the Daughters of Temperance: As the situation thickens, stores begin to deny me service. A shopkeeper refuses to sell me certain items that are in stock and we aren’t barred from sale, I have just been informed that liquor and tobacco have become contraband. The more than nagging need to satiate addictions during lockdown aside, this proprietor allows Indian nationals to purchase products, but denies me the same goods. He’d have me starve to death! I, like all outsiders, have become the face of a faceless virus that has ruined lives, in fact “Muslims were initially blamed for the spread of infection (Siddiqui),” a group that is no less a part of India than Sikhs(10), yet, like Jews anywhere in the world, are perpetual outsiders. All things considered, this is mass hysteria! Nobody I know has died from Covid yet. A sampling error? Perhaps. Nonetheless, I sit in my room without a breeze (I don’t have A/C) and ponder what society has come to, Freud’s mob mentality.

They’re Trying to Starve Me Out: That shopkeeper has changed his mind, I returned to him to buy groceries but he yelled “go away foreigner white face.” He then insisted that a clerk not give me an old box, although I was carrying a heavy load and had no tote. The hypocrisy of people here is an in the face classism, a rule for me and a rule for them. The Covid cases are increasing exponentially! So are my headaches. They’re not headaches as much as a feeling that every nerve ending in my body is being prodded with a needle and the inside of my brain shrinking. Now, I sit at home alone, the rats scurry across the floor, the heat comes in waves, time stands still and there’s nothing to laugh about, Covid cases are in the hundred thousands and the death toll is staggering as well.

Befriending the Gang: August’s heat, insomnia, constant dread and lack of nutrition are getting to me, I don’t know how much longer I can go on. Even local pharmacists have begun to convey a fear of me and insist that I have a cough when I go in to ask for something for heat rash. Unlike the grocers, the pharmacists sell me goods, but with great hesitation and suspicion in regards to my presence in this chawl. Finding tobacco is now the chief task of every day. It’s sold on the black market, along with chocolate, alcohol and meat, at exorbitant prices. So, like a heroin addict, I slink up to a back alley leant-to and buy a pack of smokes. It’s just like buying illicit drugs: there’s an obligatory period of making small-talk, ambiguity over whether or not the man actually has tobacco, razzing, phone calls and scurrying about to find it. In the end, I walk away with cigarettes at European prices and a dirty feeling.

Suicide Among Death: Lockdown continues and most in this chawl have lost morale. The neighbor sent her son over to tinker on my electric piano. She told me of what has been dubbed The Flower House Girl. A young woman hung herself from rafters due to endless confinement to her home and the bleak picture of tomorrow that the daily news paints. What a shame! I had wondered what the fire department was doing on the main street. They took her out of the third story window with the truck’s ladder.

Another Year Another Onion: Did I mention it’s a New Year? I didn’t even notice that the year had changed, the date passed unceremoniously and with festivities. Again, the police have rebuilt the wall that surrounds this chawl, tightening the perimeter, I’m not sure if it’s to keep Covid out or us in. In any case, food has scarcely made it through the makeshift wall and news is that food supplies will be cut off for 2 weeks, again. In any case, that which makes it in is mostly sequestered by the gangs, anyhow. It’s that I’ve got the most onions mentality(12). Despite rarely eating, I continue to gain weight. Speaking of onions, there are now over nine million confirmed Covid cases and farmers are protesting the price gouging of seeds, stating that “We are the ones who have provided food, milk, vegetables when the whole country was in lockdown, we were still toiling in the fields. It is the government” not gathering in New Delhi “that has put us at risk by introducing these laws during Covid (Hollingsworth et al).” My heart is with these brave men and women and if I had the strength I would be beside them. All things considered, despite the news and friends’ proclamations that a new year brings new hope, this may be an onion of a year too.

The Walls Close In: Yet again, the police have reduced the circumference of the wall. I feel claustrophobic or like I’m slowly, very slowly drowning. I go to bed, but sleep doesn’t come. I hear the rats fight over the last morsels of food in this chawl, when I wake, there’s inevitably a rodent corpse on the footpath in the ally that leads to my house. Food has been cut off for 2 weeks. I gave the last of my supplies to a family, in total it amounted to a pound of rice and a pound of lentils. Now, the cot is less of a fishing net with big holes and more of an empty frame. I lay on the floor instead, will I be able to get somebody to fix it, I don’t know. I have to get my family to send money first.

An Altercation: We are now allowed an evening walk, so I venture out to the usual chants, a ragtag team of would-be thugs follow me. A wave of exhaustion washes over me and my pace slows to a crawl in front of the BJP(14) Office. As I cross in front of the office, beneath the flag, a scrawny slum-bastard walk up and says “are you British?” “I’m American,” I reply. “I hear they call you Hari(15).” I can smell the alcohol on his breath as he speaks. “What of it?” “More like Harry Potter.” “I guess that’s funny,” I say and try to walk away, but he grabs me by the collar and takes a swing, he misses. I return the blow, my fist makes contact with his face. My heart is racing. I fear an all out retaliation when, like roaches from beneath rot-wood, members of the local gang emerge from the alleys and come to my aid. I had been buying tobacco from them, at highway robbery prices for weeks, and so it’s in their interest to act as my vigilante guardians, in some regards, the gangs are better than the police, or at least their corruption and self service is laid out on the table for all to see, where the cops are supposed to protect and serve, protecting and serving often isn’t the case here, it comes down to ethnic and caste schisms.

Two Deaths and a Ghost: It’s another day and the death toll has spiked again. Feeling that I escaped death and death being the only thing the news reports on I begin to wonder, had I been killed by a mob, would my death have been reported as a Covid death? Is the death toll real? There’s a little hospital in this chawl, it’s certainly not inundated with the dying and morticians don’t walk the streets singing “bring out your dead,” as they did during the Black Plague of 1665. In fact, of the 3 who purportedly died in Anand Nagar, one was an elderly with Emphysema, the other was a suicide and the last one, I saw him walking down the street the other day, risen from the grave as by some Covid era miracle. Truth be told, he had gone back to his family home and returned. Not an easy task, much like during the Holocaust, traveling papers are required to go anywhere, there’s not even any trains, minus a few for displaced workers. A combination of lack of food, a growing mistrust of the government’s intention with regards to lockdown and dire times brings these lyrics to mind: My wife fixed up a tater stew/ We poured the kids full of it/ Mighty thin stew, though/ You could read a magazine right through it. Always have figured/ That if it’d been just a little bit thinner, Some of these here politicians/ Coulda seen through it(21).

Are the politicians duped or am I? What about herd immunity? I feel like I’m living in the Dust Bowl, except there’s no storm of dust and the sky isn’t black. The enemy is invisible. Or, am I the enemy? So much for relativism.

Police and Indians: On another outing, again attempting to purchase essentials, those things that whether for sustenance or pleasure, an invisible hand has decided that I may indulge in, I find that even local authorities seem misinformed about the number of foreign nationals in India with Covid. Recently, police stopped me for questioning and informed me that “foreigners are the cause of Corona Virus.” After looking for a quarantine stamp on my hands several times and not finding one they insisted that I run back home and followed me on motorcycles. This was witnessed by several locals who cheered the police on. As the police resounded sentiments of this chawl’s inhabitants, it reinforced negative feelings. I didn’t eat that night. The days following the police harassment, locals continued jeering me by saying “the police will come and hit you,” while mimicking the thwack of a cane on their posterior. Not just are they misinformed, they’d like to see me hung.

Read the Sign: In case you feel incredulous in regards to my claims about placing a stamp on the hands of foreigners and the police’s blindingly Orwellian allegiance to the BJP, the party who blamed Covid on Muslims and foreigners, The National Library of Medicine has this to say about it: tourists who arrived in India from affected countries were put in quarantine for 14 days in their port of arrival, their “left hand was stamped with ink” to maintain the date and time of their home quarantine, “a move that could risk assault, due to stigma towards Covid suspects [foreigners].” Individuals violating the quarantine can be penalized via Indian penal code Section 188, 269 and 270 (Siddiqui). The police, like the locals, are looking for a whipping-post and have a draconian view about foreign nationals in India during this crisis, what a hoot it would be to cane them. Bollywood is no “City of Dreams,” in fact, misinformation abounds here, signs, obviously posted by Conservative and nationalistic Hindu Vegans, reads as so: ‘Ways to avoid Covid/ Don’t eat meat/ Don’t smoke/ Don’t talk to foreigners.�� I no longer see the good that I jotted down in an earlier journal entry. Also, tired of the word “misinformation,” not sure who gets to decide what’s misinformation, although I myself used it in this entry, just tired: days crawl by and the feeling of isolation causes a pressure on my cranium and a meaninglessness to all things.

Mending a Bed: Despite having become a pariah, I was able to get the cot fixed, for a small fee, a tailor was willing to come over, and work against the law, they despise me, but like money enough to look past it. The work doesn’t look great, it’s rigged. Most everything here is rigged. I’m never sure if this is the ingenuity of a race of impoverished people or the result of an attitude that declares good enough is good. In the end, most everything is a hodgepodge of corrugated steel, broken bits of wood and rope with exposed electrical wires that run through water and the elements in general. I’ve always said, if the manpower here became a collected force and decided to stop pollution, get the rivers clean, enforce something like an ADA, demand fair housing they would be an unstoppable force. Instead, they divide themselves along ethnic schisms.

A Pickpocket: Food has returned to the stores and shopkeepers are serving me, but I was pickpocketed at the register. I took my wallet out to pay, right before my eyes a man reached in my wallet and took a 500 out, it was the last of the money I had. I came home empty handed. For the first time since my divorce, I broke down and cried. Now I sit wiping my eyes. Is all hope for humanity lost? I cannot answer. Besides Covid, there’s so much political turmoil! It looks as though there won’t be a smooth transition of power this time.

What I’ve Learned From the Steppenwolf: I’m concerned for the nation’s migrant workers, other visiting foreign nationals and those who descend from Mizoram and Assam, these individuals may be more prone to the psychological effects of loneliness than myself. Culturally, Indian life centers around an extended family, whereas I’m more akin to Herman Hesse’s Steppenwolf. All in all, it’s tough to live overseas in the best case scenario and down-right depressing when you’ve become public enemy number one. But, as I said, I have a tough enough skin to survive this, but there are those who’ve been cannibalized by their own society. Anyway, lockdown should end in 3 weeks, the infection rate is on the decline. We are now aloud out in the evenings and I have taken to sitting with friends in front of the Rukhmini(16) Temple. It’s like the opening line of a joke, a Jew, a Muslim and a Hindu… Among us, there’s a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian and a Hindu priest. All in all, I need them not, but it’s nice to have some companionship, even if there’s little communication. I have returned to good graces.

Family Matters: Although I feel alone, I’m not jealous of India’s family structure. Locals often ask me about my family, casual things like “how is your mother?” “I don’t know. I don’t keep in touch with my family very much,” I respond. It’s a matter of privacy and staying out of gossip. Here, grown men never grow up, they are fed and coddled by their mothers. I had recently met a man who can’t cook for himself, nor wash his own clothes and still occasionally sleeps in bed with his mother. Speaking of men, spouse abuse, along with drinking, is on the rise. It’s not uncommon to see and hear it. Too often, after dark, I witness, when I sneak out for a walk to break the munatiny, men hitting women by the open air temple that my house is adjacent to. Speaking of temples, Hanukkah recently passed. I lit a makeshift menorah, but even that gave me little joy. As for now, the best thing is drinking chai by the little Rukmini temple.

Down With the Wall: The wall has come down! Lockdown isn’t over, but the wall has come down. Alas, air travel has returned, the government has announced “air bubbles” and I’m returning to America. After everything, I was never again treated as more than a second-class citizen in that chawl but it matters not, I’m leaving! In the end, the locals’ reaction to me and the psychological impact of the loneliness, their words and actions heave upon me, have caused deep scars. On a more disappointing note, all local newspapers have declined to publish my recollections of lockdown. An earnest question, were we fed false dichotomies, ones that stated wear a mask or everyone dies and get the vaccine or everyone dies, just for some political experiment or agenda? It’s just odd that after the farmers protested the Covid number began to decrease.

Integrity Intact

No Amnesty for the Wicked: One might say, you’ve survived the worst, why bring this up at all? Isn’t it time for amnesty? I feel the answers to this was best put into words in the video Pandemic Amnesty: Do you Forgive and Forget and so I will summarize what the author said, “there were things that happened that there needs to be a recognition of, and there needs to be a public apology. There needs to be a promise that this never happens again. There needs to be people who actually pay for their behavior, potentially criminal behavior. […] Until the people who did harm admit that they did harm this kind of thing will just keep repeating itself. […] Some people were victims, other people were perpetrators, and then there [were] also enablers (Wand).” For instance, The Deccan Herald reports that there have been “attacks on people from India’s northeastern region […], suspecting them of being carriers of the virus.” Assaulting your own people is like cannibalism, that’s all there is to it! As it was written in the newspaper, apart from being called “Corona” or “Chinki(9)” India’s [Asiatic] people were spat on and forcibly quarantined, despite showing no Covid symptoms, all because of their looks and an ignorant fear that anyone who looks different are the root cause of the Pandemic. Also, they were denied entry into their apartment complexes, evicted, merely threatened with eviction or forced out of restaurants to make others comfortable and none wanted to share transport with them (Karmakar). Of all things, it’s not time for amnesty.

Ignorance isn’t an Excuse: There needs to be punishment for these wicked deeds! There’ll be no retribution for foreigners who suffered in India, but locals, those from minority communities, who had just days before lockdown been upstanding citizens, deserve retribution and possibly reparations. There those who died from the virus and those who died at the selfishness and ignorance of mankind, for those who died by the hand of man have this to say: “To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time ( Elie Wiesel).” Ignorance, for good reason, has never been, nor shall it be an excuse for breaking laws and committing atrocities. The Atlantic is wrong in their assertion that we should just forgive and forget (Oster). Perhaps, in the name of healing, it’s time to forgive, but should never forget!

A Clear Conscience: During The Covid Outbreak, I may have lost my mind, found myself in complete isolation and on the brink of starvation at times, but at least I kept my dignity. I threw no stones and attempted to obey the laws, even those that actively brought hardship into my life. I defended myself when needed, I live by the adage “walk gently and carry a big stick.” As for the war of the ethnicities in India, I guess it’s none of my business, alone, I can’t defend the minorities. And in regards to retribution for the wicked, my hands are also tied. However, I won’t give amnesty, not in my heart. Forgetting and moving on, as Oster’s article suggests (Oster) is, to reiterate, akin to allowing the cycle to repeat again. In the end, my travels have provided me with armor to protect against cabin fever, I’ve endured hardships and loneliness in remote villages of Nepal and have been “the stranger” in the metropolitans of Hong Kong, Bangladesh… But there are those among the Indians whose identity and self-worth come from a tightly knit family and friend structure, many of which took their own lives due to isolation. Others starved to death because of lack of income and others died due to the rejection of medical services. Luckily, I was not immune to the effects of isolation, but well insulated from the threat of Corona by a chawl that exists off the radar and societies’ fear of foreigners, local inhabitants keep me at arm’s length and so, I didn’t catch the virus during lockdown.

Notes

1: The views herein are not the of WTDA but the author. At WTDA we publish a variety of news, depending on what we deem to be an interesting story at the moment.

2: At the time of writing, Covid hadn’t yet been declared a Pandemic.

3: Citation no longer available at The World Health Organization.

4: The author of this journal wants it to be known that they don’t, nor did they ever, believe that masks are/were an effective way of preventing Covid-19 but were forced to wear a face covering by Indian law. At the time, they obeyed the law.

5: Public.

6: Hyped media, having no real effect on the life of the author.

7: A long scarf worn by Indian women.

8: The Marathi word for neighbourhood which is colloquially used to denote a slum.

9: North Indian slang for India’s Asiatic population.

10: A religion that combines attributes of Islam and Hinduism and originated in India.

11: Guests are G-D.

12: In 2019, due to flooding, there was an onion shortage. An entrepreneur had been hoarding onions. At the time, not only did he declare that “onions are the new gold” he purportedly sold the onions for 3 times the market value. To the author, it serves as a symbol of the selfish psychological state that caused some of the worst aspects of Covid lockdown.

13: A 3 day Islamic spiritual event in India’s capital hosted by a 100 years Islamic Missionary Movement. Due to the cases reaching over 300 after the event, the meme was coined: China is the “producers” of the virus, and Muslims are the “distributors.”

14: A political party, of which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the leader of. Every neighborhood has a BJP office.

15: A common male name in India and regional pronunciation of the Anglo name Harry.

16: The primary wife of the Hindu G-D Krishna.

17: The name of the slum in which the writer lived during lockdown.

18: A temple in the slum in which the foreigner lived during lockdown. The temple is dedicated to the monkey G-D, a deity who helped Rama in the Hindu epic, the Ramayana.

19: A poker-like card game in which the players make melds with three cards.

20: Mending Wall by Robert Frost.

21: Talkin’ Dust Bowl Blues by Woodie Guthrie.

22: A dance form native to the west Indian state of Gujarat, performed in October to honour the Hindu Goddess Durga. It is also celebrated in Maharashtra. People gather on the streets, dancing in pairs of men and women where they rhythmically click sticks together.

23: The largest ethnic group in mainland China, about 91% of the population.

24: A South Indian dish made of rice and lentils. It’s a comfort food that’s supposed to aid in healing.

25: Brutalist architecture emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era.These buildings characterised by minimalism and bare building materials. They are commonly seen today in old Soviet Union countries and Central Asia, reminding many of totalitarianism.

[abhithewriter]

MY TIME DURING COVID

It was four years ago, when the world came to a standstill thanks to the presence of a virus called COVID-19. I was in Leeuwarden when I heard about this virus. It was present in China at the time so nobody in my university was worried about it. But as time passed by, the virus started to spread across several countries, people started to get concerned.

I was away from my parents, so we were in constant communication as to whether I should go back to Qatar or stay in Leeuwarden. But as the cases started to rise in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, we thought it would be safer for me to go back to Qatar. On the 17th of March 2020, I travelled from Leeuwarden to Qatar, but then another problem raised. Qatar was not allowing entry to anyone who was not a Qatar Citizen and at that moment, we decided that the best thing to do if for me and my mother to travel to India and stay in my relative’s home. In our opinion, this was the best option as we thought the lockdown would not last more than a month. So, we travelled to Mumbai while my father stayed in Qatar where my mother’s sister had vacated her house so we could stay there and quarantine.

My mother and I struggled in the initial stages as we always had to wear masks and gloves while going downstairs to buy fruits, vegetables, and other essentials for the house. My mother was away from my father which was very difficult for her and much like the world, my mother and I found entertainment through social media and TikTok reels. The chores in the house were distributed between my mother and me as I oversaw washing dishes, watering plants and laundry while she was doing the cooking and the cleaning of the house. Matters got worse when the lockdown was extended for another month and none of our family members could stay with us at the time. Outside our house, all we could hear was negativity as nobody had any clue as to when the lockdown was going to end.

Two months into the lockdown, things felt like they were easing because people were allowed to travel within their state, which meant our family could stay with us. This made things a little better for my mother and me as we had people to help us and keep us company. Another advantage of the family staying with us was there was someone to help us with the chores at home. Another positive was that sports matches were coming back, albeit in an empty stadium. It looked like we were starting to get some sort of respite. But just then, there was the news about Sushant Singh Rajput committing suicide and because people were already frustrated with the lockdown, this news just pushed people over the edge. Social media became a negative place, and the next month became difficult for everyone.

On the studies front, I was attending classes and writing exams online and this was a different challenge for all of us as a lot of us were in different parts of the world in different time zones. We had to give our written examinations with the cameras turned on in our laptops to make sure that we were not cheating. I was working on group projects with my team members who were in different parts of the world, and this had its disadvantages like having to agree on a particular which was not always easy due to the time difference and there was the problem of the internet connection which was not always stable.

Five moths into the lockdown, we got news that we would be allowed to travel back to Qatar and when we heard this, my mother and I were ecstatic when we heard this news. We had to wear a mask and a face shield while travelling in the plane but that did not matter to us because we just wanted to get back home. When we landed in Qatar, we had another challenge where People had to quarantine for one week inside a room before they were allowed to go home and it was a lot to take for my mother and me as we had already been though a lot.

On the 7th day, we were allowed to travel back home and the three of us were finally together after almost half a year. This was an experience that I will never forget and hopefully never want to go through ever again.

[paulpingminho]

[dailyanarchistposts]

India witnessed the rise of two large protest movements in last 2 years which saw millions taking to streets against the oppressive laws passed by the government. These were the Anti-CAA protests against the discriminative Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and the farmers protests against the 3 pro-corporate farm laws. During the Anti-CAA protests, the loudest voices of dissent have been the women, from housewives to grandmothers, lawyers to students, women across India have been at the forefront of this struggle. This female-driven political awakening has been most jubilantly epitomized by the sit-in protest at Shaheen Bagh, drawing a cross-generational, largely female crowd never seen in India before [1]. Then came the farmer protests, where millions of farmers took to streets to fight the anti-farmer legislation that was passed in the Indian parliament and to highlight the issues of agrarian crisis which has been growing in India for the last few decades. In these protests, there is an unprecedented solidarity being displayed in the daily rallies that draw out thousands of people all over Indian cities. There are no visible leaders calling out to people to protest in one mode or another, yet the country has found a way to speak truth to power [2].

The Shaheen Bagh protest was led mostly by Muslim women, in response to the passage of the discriminative and unconstitutional CAA passed by Parliament of India and the police attack on students of Jamia Millia Islamia University. Protesters agitated not only against the citizenship issues of the CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR), but also against economic crisis, rising inequality, police brutality, unemployment, poverty and for women’s safety. The protesters also supported farmer unions, unions opposing the government’s anti-labour policies and protested against attacks on academic institutions. The protest started with 10–15 local women, mostly hijab wearing Muslim housewives, but within days drew crowds of up to a hundred thousand, making it one of the longest sit-in protests of this magnitude in modern India. The Shaheen Bagh protest also inspired similar style protests across the country, such as those in Gaya, Kolkata, Prayagraj, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. The protesters at Shaheen Bagh, since 14 December 2019, continued their sit-in protest in New Delhi using non-violent resistance for 101 days until 24 March 2020 when it ended due to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

Most of the women who came to Shaheen Bagh protest were first-time protesters, mostly homemakers, who were standing up to the government [3]. This was the first time they came out on a national issue which cut across religious lines. Some came with their newborns and children and some were grandparents. The women were center of protests and men supported them from the sidelines. They were creative and strategic. They governed their worlds quietly from the background and knew when a crisis needed them to cross invisible boundaries and step into the foreground. They emerged into the public space to collectively confront a looming crisis [2]. Armed with thick blankets, warm cups of tea and songs of resistance, these women have braved one of the coldest winters Delhi faced in the last 118 years [4]. These women were drivers of this protest, joining in irrespective of caste and religion, taking turns to sit-in at the site. They broke down the historically prevailing gender binary of patriarchy and took control. They also destroyed the popular imagination claiming Muslim women as powerless and lacking agency.

Shaheen Bagh in many ways typifies the protest movement that erupted across India as it was leaderless. No political party or organization could claim to be leading the protest. Instead, it was fueled primarily by these women who were residents of working-class neighborhoods of Shaheen Bagh. Since it was a leaderless protest, it could not be terminated by a few prominent organizers [5]. When they tried to “called off” the protest citing interference of political parties and security threats, the women of Shaheen Bagh rejected it and decided to continue the protests. The movement had no formal organizers and thrived on a roving group of volunteers and the local women’s tenacity alone. The lack of leaders also confused the police who are clueless on whom to approach to make these women vacate the site.

The protesters were supported and coordinated by a diverse group of more than hundred volunteers, including local residents, students and professionals. These volunteers organized themselves around different tasks such as setting up makeshift stages, shelters and bedding; providing food, water, medicine, and access to toilet facilities; installing CCTV cameras, bringing in electric heaters, outside speakers and collecting donations [6]. Donations includes mattresses, an assortment of tables that form the foundation of the stage and endless cups of steaming tea that provide warmth on cold winter days. Local residents formed informal groups which coordinated security, speakers, songs, and cultural programs that happened on these makeshift stages. People distributed tea, snacks, biryani, sweets and other eatables at the protest site. Some donated wood logs to keep the protesters warm. Collection drives for blankets and other essentials were organized through social media. A health camp was also set up beside the camped protesters which provided medicines for them. Doctors and nurses along with medical students from different medical institutes and hospitals voluntarily joined for the purpose [7]. A group of Sikh farmers from Punjab came and set up a langer (free community kitchen) in the area.

The space was decorated with art and installations [8]. Stairways leading to the closed shops in the vicinity of the protest circle were transformed into a public library and art centre by student volunteers from Jamia along with the young children of Shaheen Bagh. Protest art became the voice of resistance and dissent during the event, and the area was covered in murals, graffiti, posters and banners [9]. A reading area called “Read for Revolution” had been set up with hundreds of crowd-sourced books as well as writing materials [10]. A nearby bus stop was converted into the Fatima Sheikh-Savitribai Phule library, which provided material on the country’s constitution, revolution, racism, fascism, oppression and various social issues [11]. Public reading spaces were created for the cause of dissent and to amplify the idea of education amongst the protesters of Shaheen Bagh. Since a majority of women of Shaheen Bagh have stepped out of their homes for the first time, this was an attempt to bring these women closer so that they read and facilitate the social change they exemplify. Besides young children, senior citizens, working people, domestic workers and many from Shaheen Bagh and nearby areas were occupying the area, choosing books or picking up colors and chart paper, while some also come to donate their old books and stationery.

लड़ो पढ़ाई करने को, पढ़ो समाज बदलने को (Fight To Read, Read To Change)

The children who were present alongside parents also participated in the protest. Most of these children would visit school in the morning before joining their parents at the protest site, which became an art space for many children [12]. They would express their thoughts and join in the protest through storytelling, poetry, puppetry, singing and painting. Student volunteers engaged the local children in reading, painting and singing, and held informal reading lessons.

Speeches, lectures, rap and shayari poetry readings were held every day [13]. Activists, artists and social workers came and gave talks on various issues faced by Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis, the disabled, LGBTQ people, and all those who are oppressed. The stage is democratic and hosts poets and professors, housewives and elders, civil society groups and civic leaders, actors and celebrities and of course students – from Jamia, JNU to the local government schools. A large number of women participate in open-mics to express their thoughts, many speaking in public for the first time. The protestors read the Preamble of the Constitution which reminds them of their rights of Liberty, Equality and Justice. If the Shaheen Bagh stage had a bias, it is towards women and those, from academia and elsewhere, who can educate them not just on CAA-NRC-NPR, but also the freedom struggle, Ambedkar, Gandhi and the ideas that animate the preamble to the constitution [13]. The chants of “inquilab zindabad (long live the revolution!)”and “save the Constitution” filled the site. At night people would watch films and documentaries which were screened on the site, about refugee crisis, anti-fascist struggles and revolution. Musical and cultural events were also conducted in solidarity with anti-CAA protests. This occupy protest provided an example of how to create a community without government support by voluntary association and mutual aid, make decisions in a democratic way where everyone takes part and decentralize power by having no organizers or leaders who control everything. These elements of anarchist organizing is also visible in the farmers’ protest.

Small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land account for 86.2% of all farmers in India, but own just 47.3% of the crop area. A total of 2,96,438 farmers have committed suicide in India from 1995–2015 [14]. 28 people dependent on farming die by suicide in India every day [15]. India is already facing a huge agrarian crisis and the 3 new laws have opened up door for corporatization of agriculture by dismantling the Minimum Support Price (MSP) leaving the farmers at the mercy of the big capitalist businesses.

The farmers protest began with farmers unions holding local protests against the farmer bills mostly in Punjab. After two months of protests, farmers from Punjab and Haryana began a movement named Dilli Chalo (Go to Delhi), in which tens of thousands of farmers marched towards the nation’s capital [16]. The Indian government used police to attack the protesters using water cannons, batons, and tear gas to stop them from entering Delhi. On 26 November 2020, the largest general strike in the world with over 250 million people, took place in support of the farmers [17]. A crowd of 200,000 to 300,000 farmers converged at various border points on the way to Delhi. As protest, farmers blocked the highways surrounding Delhi by sitting on the roads [18]. Transport unions representing 14 million truck drivers also came out in support of the farmers. The farmers have told the Supreme court of India that they won’t listen to courts if asked to back off. They organized a tractor rally with over 200,000 tractors on the Republic day and stormed the historic Red Fort [19]. The government barricaded the capital roads with cemented nails and trenches to stop farmers and electricity, Internet, and water supply were cut off from the protest sites.

Scores of langars, i.e. free community kitchens have been set up by farmer’s organizations and NGOs to meet the food needs of the hundreds of thousands of farmers in the farmers-camps that have sprung up on the borders of Delhi [20]. The farmers came fully equipped to prepare mass meals in these community kitchens with supplies coming from their villages daily. Tractors and trucks with sacks of vegetables and flour as well as cans of oil and milk arrive daily from villages and towns where pooling resources for community meals is a way of life. These langars work round the clock and provide free food without distinction of caste, class, or religion. Supporters of the farm protest often bring almonds, apples, sweets, and packaged water. They even supplied a machine that rolls out a thousand “rotis” every hour. Social media is used to collect blankets and other essentials for these protests who are braving the harsh winter. Many protestors camp on the roadside in the cold Delhi winter and spending nights curled up in tractor trailers. Volunteers have set up solar-powered mobile charging points, laundry stalls with washing machines, medical stalls for medicines, arranged doctors and nurses, dental camps and brought foot massage chairs for elderly protesters [21].

A makeshift school has been set up at the camp, called “Sanjhi Sathh” (a common place) to recreate a village tradition of holding discussions on important issues. Children from underprivileged families who are unable to attend school due to financial issues and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic come to this tent. It has library, which displays biographies of Indian freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, revolutionary Che Guevara, and other books of various genres and newspapers in English, Hindi and Punjabi languages. Dozens of posters with slogans written on them cover every inch of the tarpaulin tents [22]. Farmers also installed CCTV cameras to keep a watch on the protest site and keep a record of what is happening and counter any narrative to discredit their protest. Farmers protest also saw participation of women coming out to protest in large numbers. Women farmers and agricultural workers were riding tractors from their villages and rallying to the protest sites, unfazed by the gruesome winter.

Just like Shaheen Bagh protest, this is a decentralized leaderless protest by hundreds of farmer unions. Even though the negotiations with the government are being attended by representatives of 32 farmer unions, they act as spoke persons who present the collective demand of all farmers. Whenever Government introduces a new proposal, the representatives come back to the unions where they sit together, discuss, debate and decide the future course of action together in a democratic way. Farmers are conducting Kisan Mahapanchayats (public meetings) which are attended by hundreds of thousands of people in villages around Delhi, UP, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana to discuss strategies and ways to put pressure on the government. It was this decentralization that made the protest robust and overcome the condemnation around violence during Republic day Truck Rally. Even though many farm union leaders called for ending the protest, the farmers remained steadfast in their decision to not go back till the laws were repelled.

The sites of the two protests mentioned above can be compared to the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) that was set up in Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington by Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters during the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by Police [23]. CHAZ was a nascent commune, built through mutual aid where no police was allowed and almost everything was free.

CHAZ, Shaheen Bagh and Farmers’ protests were occupation protests where the protestors set up a community themselves and created an autonomous zone. If one was against racism and police brutality, others were against religious discrimination and agrarian crisis. The protests were mostly self-organized and without an official leadership. The sites were filled with protest art, paintings, film screenings and musical performances [24]. Just like the mutual aid cooperative in CHAZ, free food, water, snacks and other supplies were provided to everyone. Areas were set up for assemblies and to facilitate discourse [25].

CHAZ was a leaderless zone, where the occupants favored consensus decision-making in the form of a general assembly, with daily meetings and discussion [26]. They slept in tents, cars and surrounding buildings, relying on donations from local store owners and activists. They collected donations for the homeless and created community gardens [27]. Medical stations were established to provide basic health care.

Anarchism tries to create institutions of a new society “within the shell of the old,” to expose, subvert, and undermine structures of domination but always, while doing so, proceeding in a democratic fashion, a manner which itself demonstrates those structures are unnecessary [28]. Anarchists observe what people are already doing in their communities, and then tries to tease out the hidden symbolic, moral, or pragmatic logic that underlie their actions and tries to make sense of it in ways that they are not themselves completely aware of. They look at those who are creating viable alternatives, try to figure out what might be the larger implications of what they are already doing, and then offer those ideas back, not as prescriptions, but as contributions [28]. They understand that people are already forming self-organized communities when the state has failed them and we can learn a lot about direct action and mutual aid from these communities.

Direct democratic decision making, decentralization of power, solidarity, mutual aid and voluntary association are the core principles of anarchist organizing. Anarchists employ direct action, disrupting and protesting against unjust hierarchy, and self-managing their lives through the creation of counter-institutions such as communes and non-hierarchical collectives. Decision-making is handled in an anti-authoritarian way, with everyone having equal say in each decision. They participate in all discussions in order to build a rough consensus among members of the group without the need of a leader or a leading group. Anarchists organize themselves to occupy and reclaim public spaces where art, poetry and music are blended to display the anarchist ideals. Squatting is a way to regain public space from the capitalist market or an authoritarian state and also being an example of direct action. We can find elements of these in all these protests and that is the reason for their robustness and success. It bursts the myth that you need a centralized chain of command with small group of leaders on top who decide the strategies and a very large group of followers who blindly obey those decisions for the sustenance and success of large scale organizing. All these protests were leaderless protests where people themselves decided and came to a consensus on the course of action to be followed in a democratic way. When people decide to take decisions themselves and coordinate with each other in small communities by providing aid to each other, it creates the strongest form of democracy and solidarity.

The fact that these protests happened, with so many people collectively organizing and cooperating, for such a long duration, shows us that we can self-organize and create communities without external institutions and it can be civilized and more democratic than the autocratic bureaucracy and authoritarian governments which concentrate all power and oppress people. These protests were driven by mostly by uneducated women, poor farmers and people from other marginalized communities, who showed that they can create communities which are more moral and egalitarian, than those that exist in hierarchical societies with the affluent and highly educated. They showed that people who are oppressed and underprivileged can organize themselves into communities of mutual aid and direct democracy which eliminates a need for coercive hierarchical systems of governance which exist only to exploit them.

What these occupy protests show us is that we can form communities and collectively organize various forms of democratic decision making simultaneously providing everyone their basic needs. There protests show us models of community organizing in large scales comprising hundreds of thousands of people. Even though they are not perfect we can learn the ideas these protests emulate – of solidarity, mutual aid, direct democracy, decentralization of power and try to recreate these in our lives and communities.

References

[1]

H. E. Petersen and S. Azizur Rahman, “‘Modi is afraid’: women take lead in India’s citizenship protests,” The Guardian, 21 January 2020.

[2]

N. Badwar, “Speaking truth to power, in Shaheen Bagh and beyond,” Livemint, 17 January 2020.

[3]

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[4]

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[5]

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[6]

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[7]

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[8]

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[9]

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[10]

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[11]

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[12]

A. Purkait, “In Shaheen Bagh, Children Paint Their Protest while Mothers Hold Dharna,” Makers India, 22 January 2020.

[13]

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[14]

P. Sainath, “Maharashtra crosses 60,000 farm suicides,” People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), 21 July 2014.

[15]

R. Sengupta, “Every day, 28 people dependent on farming die by suicide in India,” Down to Earth, 3 September 2020.

[16]

“Dilli Chalo | Farmers’ protest enters fifth day,” The Hindu, 30 November 2020.

[17]

S. Joy, “At least 25 crore workers participated in general strike; some states saw complete shutdown: Trade unions,” Deccan Herald, 26 November 2020.

[18]

“Farmers’ Protest Highlights: Protesting farmers refuse to budge, say ‘demands are non-negotiable,” The Indian Express, 1 December 2020.

[19]

G. Bhatia, “Tractors to Delhi,” Reuters, 29 January 2021.

[20]

“Langar Tradition Plays Out in Farmers Protest, Students Use Social Media To Organise Essentials,” India Today, 2 December 2020.

[21]

J. Sinha, “Protest site draws ‘Sewa’ – medicine stalls, laundry service, temple & library come up,” Indian Express, 11 December 2020.

[22]

B. Kuchay, “A school for the underprivileged at Indian farmers’ protest site,” AlJazeera, 24 January 2021.

[23]

D. Silva and M. Moschella, “Seattle protesters set up ‘autonomous zone’ after police evacuate precinct,” NBC News, 11 June 2020.

[24]

C. Burns, “The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone Renames, Expands, and Adds Film Programming,” The Stranger, 10 June 2020.

[25]

H. Allam, “‘Remember Who We’re Fighting For’: The Uneasy Existence Of Seattle’s Protest Camp,” NPR, 18 June 2020.

[26]

K. Burns, “Seattle’s newly police-free neighborhood, explained,” Vox, 16 June 2020.

[27]

h. Weinberger, “In Seattle’s CHAZ, a community garden takes root | Crosscut,” Crosscut, 15 June 2020.

[28]

D. Graeber, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, 2004.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Dyani Lewis

Published: May 31, 2023

In India, children under 16 returning to school this month at the start of the school year will no longer be taught about evolution, the periodic table of elements or sources of energy.

The news that evolution would be cut from the curriculum for students aged 15–16 was widely reported last month, when thousands of people signed a petition in protest. But official guidance has revealed that a chapter on the periodic table will be cut, too, along with other foundational topics such as sources of energy and environmental sustainability. Younger learners will no longer be taught certain pollution- and climate-related topics, and there are cuts to biology, chemistry, geography, mathematics and physics subjects for older school students.

Overall, the changes affect some 134 million 11–18-year-olds in India’s schools. The extent of what has changed became clearer last month when the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) — the public body that develops the Indian school curriculum and textbooks — released textbooks for the new academic year that started in May.

Researchers, including those who study science education, are shocked. “Anybody who’s trying to teach biology without dealing with evolution is not teaching biology as we currently understand it,” says Jonathan Osborne, a science-education researcher at Stanford University in California. “It’s that fundamental to biology.” The periodic table explains how life’s building blocks combine to generate substances with vastly different properties, he adds, and “is one of the great intellectual achievements of chemists”.

Mythili Ramchand, a science-teacher trainer at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, India, says that “everything related to water, air pollution, resource management has been removed. “I don’t see how conservation of water, and air [pollution], is not relevant for us. It’s all the more so currently,” she adds. A chapter on different sources of energy — from fossil fuels to renewables — has also been removed. “That’s a bit strange, quite honestly, given the relevance in today’s world,” says Osborne.

More than 4,500 scientists, teachers and science communicators have signed an appeal organized by Breakthrough Science Society, a campaign group based in Kolkata, India, to reinstate the axed content on evolution.

NCERT has not responded to the appeal. And although it relied on expert committees to oversee the changes, it has not yet engaged with parents and teachers to explain its rationale for making them. NCERT also did not reply to Nature’s request for comment.

Chapters closed

A chapter on the periodic table of elements has been removed from the syllabus for class-10 students, who are typically 15–16 years old. Whole chapters on sources of energy and the sustainable management of natural resources have also been removed.

A small section on Michael Faraday’s contributions to the understanding of electricity and magnetism in the nineteenth century has also been stripped from the class-10 syllabus. In non-science content, chapters on democracy and diversity; political parties; and challenges to democracy have been scrapped. And a chapter on the industrial revolution has been removed for older students.

In explaining its changes, NCERT states on its website that it considered whether content overlapped with similar content covered elsewhere, the difficulty of the content, and whether the content was irrelevant. It also aims to provide opportunities for experiential learning and creativity.

NCERT announced the cuts last year, saying that they would ease pressures on students studying online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amitabh Joshi, an evolutionary biologist at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bengaluru, India, says that science teachers and researchers expected that the content would be reinstated once students returned to classrooms. Instead, the NCERT shocked everyone by printing textbooks for the new academic year with a statement that the changes will remain for the next two academic years, in line with India’s revised education policy approved by government in July 2020.

“The idea [behind the new policy] is that you make students ask questions,” says Anindita Bhadra, an evolutionary biologist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata. But she says that removing fundamental concepts is likely to stifle curiosity, rather than encourage it. “The way this is being done, by saying ‘drop content and teach less’”, she says, “that’s not the way you do it”.

Evolution axed

Science educators are particularly concerned about the removal of evolution. A chapter on diversity in living organisms and one called ‘Why do we fall ill’ has been removed from the syllabus for class-9 students, who are typically 14–15 years old. Darwin’s contributions to evolution, how fossils form and human evolution have all been removed from the chapter on heredity and evolution for class-10 pupils. That chapter is now called just ‘Heredity’. Evolution, says Joshi, is essential to understanding human diversity and “our place in the world”.

In India, class 10 is the last year in which science is taught to every student. Only students who elect to study biology in the final two years of education (before university) will learn about the topic.

Joshi says that the curriculum revision process has lacked transparency. But in the case of evolution, “more religious groups in India are beginning to take anti-evolution stances”, he says. Some members of the public also think that evolution lacks relevance outside academic institutions.

Aditya Mukherjee, a historian at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Dehli, says that changes to the curriculum are being driven by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a mass-membership volunteer organization that has close ties to India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party. The RSS feels that Hinduism is under threat from India’s other religions and cultures.

“There is a movement away from rational thinking, against the enlightenment and Western ideas” in India, adds Sucheta Mahajan, a historian at Jawaharlal Nehru University who collaborates with Mukherjee on studies of RSS influence on school texts. Evolution conflicts with creation stories, adds Mukherjee. History is the main target, but “science is one of the victims”, she adds.

==

Well, at least it'll put them on par with the anti-science and biology-denial of US classrooms. China no longer has anything to worry about.

[bmspectra24]

Bangaloreans ka Dabba Gul

The Mumbai Dabbawalas are a remarkable example of an efficient food delivery service that has been operating in the bustling metropolis of Mumbai since the late 1800s. Their primary function is to deliver home-cooked meals from customers’ homes to their workplaces, catering primarily to the city's office workers who crave the comfort of home-cooked food during their busy workdays. The Dabbawalas managed to deliver around 200,000 meals daily, relying on a complex yet effective logistical framework that incorporates traditional methods with an understanding of the local urban landscape. Each Dabbawala is responsible for picking up tiffin boxes filled with freshly prepared meals in the morning, which are then sorted and delivered to the correct locations using a unique color-coded system. This coding system allows them to identify the destination of each tiffin at a glance, ensuring that deliveries are completed with remarkable accuracy. The entire process, from collection to delivery, is meticulously timed, with most Dabbawalas finishing their rounds in under six hours, thanks to their deep familiarity with the city’s geography and public transportation systems.

Transportation plays a crucial role in the Dabbawalas' operations. They primarily take advantage of the city’s local train system to cover greater distances quickly. This multi-modal approach not only increases their efficiency but also allows them to avoid the heavy traffic that can often paralyze the city. Each Dabbawala typically handles around 30 to 40 tiffin’s each day, working in teams to streamline operations further. In recent years, the Mumbai Dabbawalas have faced several challenges that threaten their traditional business model. One significant issue is the increasing competition from modern food delivery services, such as Swiggy and Zomato, which offer a wide variety of cuisines and the convenience of online ordering through apps. These platforms have capitalized on the growing demand for diverse dining options and fast delivery times, drawing customers away from the Dabbawala system, which primarily focuses on home-cooked meals. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges, such as remote working arrangements which drastically reduced the number of office-goers in Mumbai, resulting in a substantial drop in daily deliveries. Furthermore, the increasing cost of living and inflation have impacted their earnings, as the cost of raw materials for the meals has risen, putting additional financial strain on both the Dabbawalas and their customers.

Task at Hand

The Mumbai Dabbawalas have decided to expand to Bangalore and as the CEO of Mumbai Dabbawallas plan your expansion strategy for introducing the service in the ‘IT Hub of India’

Deliverables

A report (minimum 5 pages) and a PPT (minimum 7 slides) consisting of:

1. Business model for the new city

2. Phase Wise Implementation Plan & Growth Strategies

3. Unconventional Marketing Strategies

4. Technological Integration (if any)

5. Outline of your Targeted Locations in Bangalore

6. Financials for the Project.

[guestblogger1]

YES Germany: Empowering Students to Achieve Their Study Abroad Dreams

As the global demand for international education continues to rise, the study abroad consultancy market in India has witnessed remarkable growth in recent years. Amidst this dynamic landscape, YES Germany has emerged as a leading player, offering comprehensive services to help students realize their dreams of studying in Germany.

YES Germany: A Trusted Name in Study Abroad Consulting

Established over a decade ago, YES Germany has carved out a niche for itself as a premier study abroad consultant in India. With a team of highly qualified and experienced professionals, the company has built a strong reputation for guiding students through every step of the study abroad journey, from university selection to visa assistance and beyond.

Market Size and Growth

The Indian study abroad market is expected to reach a staggering $80 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 18% according to a report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). Within this rapidly expanding market, YES Germany has firmly established its presence, catering to the growing demand for study abroad services in Faridabad and beyond.

Industry Leadership and Innovation

What sets YES Germany apart is its unwavering commitment to innovation and excellence. The company's comprehensive suite of services, including counseling, confirmed admissions, visa assistance, language training, and post-arrival support, has earned it a reputation as a one-stop-shop for study abroad aspirants.

YES Germany's industry leadership is further bolstered by its strong partnerships with prestigious German universities and its deep understanding of the German education system. The company's founder, Dr. Gagan Syal, is a German-educated engineer with over a decade of experience at Mercedes-Benz, lending the organization a unique blend of academic and industry expertise.

Overcoming Industry Challenges

The study abroad industry has faced its fair share of challenges, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, YES Germany has demonstrated its resilience by adapting its services to the changing landscape, offering virtual counseling sessions and online language classes to ensure seamless support for its clients.

Moreover, the company has leveraged its strong industry connections and market insights to navigate the evolving regulatory environment and stay ahead of the curve. This agility and responsiveness have been instrumental in maintaining YES Germany's position as a trusted partner for students seeking to study in Germany.

Market Outlook and Future Prospects

As the global economy recovers and international travel resumes, the demand for study abroad services is expected to surge. YES Germany is well-positioned to capitalize on this growth, with its comprehensive offerings, industry expertise, and commitment to student success.

The company's focus on providing personalized guidance, tailored to the unique needs of each student, has been a key driver of its success. By continuously investing in its team, technology, and industry partnerships, YES Germany is poised to maintain its leadership position in the study abroad consultancy market.

Furthermore, Yes Germany has a widespread presence with branches in - Faridabad, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Noida, Delhi, Dubai, Bangalore-Indiranagar, Bangalore-BTM, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai-Navi Mumbai, and Mumbai-Andheri. This extensive network ensures that their services are easily accessible to students across India, providing localized support and personalized guidance.

Conclusion

In a rapidly evolving study abroad landscape, YES Germany has emerged as a beacon of excellence, empowering students to achieve their academic and professional aspirations in Germany. With its unwavering commitment to innovation, industry expertise, and student-centric approach, the company is well-equipped to navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities that lie ahead, cementing its status as the premier study abroad consultant in India.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Ugh...

Here we go again with this... Something something, "It's not my fault Disney is making these sequels! I avoided their latest original movies because they sucked! I shouldn't be to blame for that!"

A) These Disney Animation and Pixar sequels were likely always going to be made regardless of how the recent original movies performed financially. In the biz, if a movie makes a shit-ton of money, it's likely getting a sequel. It ain't 1997 anymore.

B) There is no blame or punishment, per se... The system in the world of mainstream American feature animation is working as intended. It's capitalism 101. It sucks, yes, but that's how it is. The performance of one movie dramatically affects the slate, or even the studio's survival. Must we dredge up what happened to Blue Sky after The Walt Disney Company bought them and their first movie released by them lost money at the box office? Better yet, all the times Disney Animation faced shutdown for many decades.

C) What if... Hear me out... These sequels are all pretty good? Better than the recent original stuff, even? Impossible! Something can be a critically-acclaimed audience favorite, and you'd still have gaggles of people online insisting the thing in question is garbage. Just look at TURNING RED, for example. It's all fuckin' subjective at the end of the day.

D) It's never gonna be good enough anyways, so why bother? I don't think I can name a *single* Disney animated movie where almost everyone was on the same page, praising it... Since THE LION KING? The latter-years Renaissance movies all had their detractors, as did the early 2000s movies, as did all the "Revival" movies (why don't they do 2D anymore? Because a lot of people avoided PRINCESS AND THE FROG and WINNIE THE POOH). I remember there were at least a few people who didn't like TANGLED, WRECK-IT RALPH, etc. etc. Were very vocal about that or didn't think they were "Disney enough" or whatever. Hell, even LION KING used to get flack for the KIMBA similarities. Plenty of the now-beloved films overseen by Walt Disney himself were largely greeted with mixed or negative reviews upon initial release. It'll never be perfect, it's just the nature of the beast. How the movies live on, is the more important part. Not the opinions of self-appointed "experts" on the Internet. Again, it's all personal preference.

The thing is, the movies Disney chooses to make is kind out of our control. No one should be obliged to pay for a product so that you get the next one like it ("vote with your wallet!"), but unfortunately, that's how the biz works. If you're not game on the latest films from the studio, you're also not to blame for what they do next, but they're gonna do what they're gonna do. That's just that about that. Hell, the thing can be a big success... And they'll still do the opposite of what people want! Off the top of my head, not an animated movie, but WORLD WAR Z 2 not moving forward despite how well the first one did. Again, it sucks. But... If WDAS ever got to a point where they were making things that I just did not want to see whatsoever? Then I'd go watch something else. It's ultimately the higher-ups' decisions that are at fault.

Very rarely are financial failures looked at logically, very rarely do executives ever try to pick up the pieces from there. Instead it's "never make this kind of thing again" or "shut this place down". It happened to Blue Sky. It happened at DreamWorks, projects cancelled (B.O.O., MONKEYS OF MUMBAI, etc.), staff laid off, a whole animation unit closed down (Pacific Data Images), etc. Disney Animation threw 2D features out twice, cancelled many movies, laid off tons of people multiple times, they faced complete shutdown multiple times. Animated movies are expensive and require lots of people and resources, they're fragile as is. COVID-19 really cut into their box office, and it doesn't help that going to the movies costs a fortune.

I'm not saying this is all a good, it's not. I've just made peace with it, and can only hope films keep getting made, staff still have work and roofs to keep over their heads, and maybe... Just maybe, I'll like the movies, too?

Anyways, I hope I like MOANA 2. I'm curious to see what the director and writers and artists and musical talents all bring to this world that was created by the first film.

[warningsine]

NEW DELHI, Nov 3 (Reuters) - India's capital New Delhi was wrapped in a thick layer of toxic haze on Friday and some schools were ordered closed as the air quality index (AQI) plummeted to the "severe" category.New Delhi again topped a real-time list of the world's most polluted cities compiled by Swiss group IQAir, which put the Indian capital's AQI at 640 in the "hazardous" category on Friday, followed by 335 in the Pakistani city of Lahore.Regional officials said a seasonal combination of lower temperatures, a lack of wind and crop stubble burning in neighbouring farm states had caused a spike in air pollutants.Many of New Delhi's 20 million residents complained of irritation in the eyes and itchy throats with the air turning a dense grey as the AQI hovered around 480 in some monitoring stations.An AQI of 0-50 is considered good while anything between 400-500 affects healthy people and is a danger to those with existing diseases."In my last 24 hours duty, I saw babies coughing, children coming with distress and rapid breathing," Aheed Khan, a Delhi-based doctor, said on social media platform X.There were fewer people in the city's parks such as Lodhi Garden and India Gate, popular with joggers.Residents snapped up air purifiers. One service centre for the appliances said there was a shortage of new filters and fresh stocks were expected on Monday.

Officials said they saw no immediate improvement in the air quality.

"This pollution level is here to stay for the next two to three weeks, aggravated by incidents of stubble burning, slow wind speed and cooling temperatures," said Ashwani Kumar, chairman of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee.

Farmers in the northern states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh typically burn crop waste after harvesting in October to clear their fields before sowing winter crops a few weeks later.

This year, attention on the worsening air quality has cast a shadow over the cricket World Cup hosted by India, with financial capital Mumbai also suffering from a spike in pollution levels.

Delhi hosts a World Cup match on Monday between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

A concentration of toxic PM2.5 particles, which are less than 2.5 microns in diameter and can cause deadly illness, was 53.4 times the World Health Organization's annual air quality guideline value in New Delhi on Friday, according to IQAir.

While junior schools in the capital were ordered shut for Friday and Saturday, they were open in the suburbs and children boarding school buses were forced to wear masks that had been put away since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Poor air quality also caused respiratory problems, irritation in the eyes and restlessness in pet animals.

"Breathing trouble can develop into pneumonia or other ailments in younger animals. If possible, avoid taking pets out on morning walks for a few days till the air improves," said Prabhat Gangwar, a veterinarian at animal welfare NGO Friendicoes.

[killed-by-choice]

Ashwini Thavai, 36 (India 2021)

In India in 2021, 36-year-old Ashwini Thavai was pregnant in a global pandemic. When she was 6 weeks pregnant, she was pressured to have a legal abortion for unspecified “health reasons”. Far from being good for her health, abortion would soon kill her.

Ashwini was given the abortion pill, but it resulted in an incomplete abortion, a common complication of the pill. On May 1 she was brought to the hospital for a surgical procedure to remove the corpse of her baby, but she bled heavily and died just 45 minutes after being transferred to another hospital.

From there, a cover-up began to try to hide the real cause of death. 6 doctors (2 of them from the pathology lab) tried to blame Ashwini’s death on COVID-19 and refused to hand over her body for further examination. Their fraud was exposed when from an antigen test and RT-PCR tests performed the day before her death all stated that she was Covid-negative.

All 6 of the doctors involved in the death and cover-up were booked by police. (Important note: Abortion is legal in India, but killing a woman with an abortion is not.)

Abortion-related maternal deaths are not as rare as abortionists want people to think. This is not the first time someone attempted to blame a legal abortion death on another cause. There may be many more cases similar to Ashwini that haven’t been discovered yet.

https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/doctors-botch-abortion-try-to-show-fatality-as-covid-death-booked/ar-AAPFNFH

[coochiequeens]

When women are single they get together with other women and enjoy life. When men are single they they make their unhappiness everyone else’s problem.

By Geeta Pandey

BBC News, Delhi

In India, girls have traditionally been raised to be good wives and mothers and the most important life goal for them has been marriage. 

But a large number of women are now charting their independent solitary path by choosing to remain single.

On Sunday, I attended a lunch gathering of two dozen women at a Caribbean lounge in south Delhi. The room was filled with excited chatter and laughter.

The women were all members of Status Single - a Facebook community for urban single women in India.

"Let's stop describing ourselves as widows, divorcees or unmarried," Sreemoyee Piu Kundu, author and founder of the community, told the gathering. "Let's just call ourselves proudly single."

The women clapped and cheered.

In a country that's often described as being "obsessed with marriage", a lot of stigma still surrounds singlehood.

In rural India, single women are often seen as a burden by their families - the never married have little agency and thousands of widows are banished to holy towns such as Vrindavan and Varanasi.

Ms Kundu and the women in the Delhi pub I meet are different. Mostly from middle class backgrounds, they include teachers, doctors, lawyers, professionals, entrepreneurs, activists, writers and journalists. Some are separated or divorced or widowed, others never married.

The wealthy urban single women are increasingly being recognised as an economic opportunity - they're wooed by banks, jewellery makers, consumer goods companies and travel agencies.

Single women are also finding representation in popular culture - Bollywood films such as Queen and Piku and web shows such as Four More Shots Please with single female protagonists have done commercially well.

And in October, the Supreme Court ruling that all women, including those not married, had equal rights to abortion was hailed as a recognition of single women's rights by the top court. 

But despite these welcome changes, society's attitudes remain rigid and, as Ms Kundu says, being single is not easy even for the affluent and they are judged all the time too.

"I've faced discrimination and humiliation as a single woman. When I was looking to rent an apartment in Mumbai, members of a housing society asked me questions like, Do you drink? Are you sexually active?" 

She's met gynaecologists who've been like "nosy neighbours" and a few years ago when her mother put an ad on an elite matrimonial site on her behalf, she met a man who asked her "within the first 15 minutes if I was a virgin"? 

"Apparently it's a question single women are routinely asked," she adds. 

Indian woman's plan to 'marry herself' sparks debate 

The opinionated feminist and her viral wedding ad

But single shaming doesn't make sense in a country which, according to the 2011 Census, is home to 71.4 million single women - a number larger than the entire populations of Britain or France.

This was a 39% increase - from 51.2 million in 2001. The 2021 Census has been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but Ms Kundu says that by now, "our numbers would have crossed 100 million". 

Some of the increase can be explained by the fact that the age of marriage has risen in India - which means a larger number of single women in their late teens or early 20s. The numbers also include a large number of widows, attributed to the fact that women tend to live longer than men. 

But, Ms Kundu says, she's seeing "many more women now who are single by choice, not just by circumstances" and it's this "changing face of singlehood" that's important to acknowledge. 

"I meet a lot of women who say they are single by choice, they reject the notion of marriage because it's a patriarchal institution that's unjust to women and used to oppress them."

Her focus on single women is rooted in the discrimination her mother - widowed at 29 - faced. 

"Growing up, I saw how a woman, unaccompanied by a man, was marginalised in our patriarchal, misogynistic set-up. She was unwelcome at baby showers and at a cousin's wedding, she was told to stay away from the bride since even a widow's shadow is considered inauspicious." 

At the age of 44, when her mother fell in love and remarried, she again attracted the "ire of society" - "How dare a widow not be the sad, weeping, asexualised, pleasureless woman that she's supposed to be? How dare she have agency again?" 

Her mother's humiliation, she says, had a profound impact on her.

"I grew up desperately wanting to get married. I believed in the fairy tale that marriage will bring acceptance and take away all my darkness."

No country for single women

'You're too smart,' and other jibes about being single

But after two failed relationships which were abusive - physically and emotionally - and coming within a hair's breadth of getting married at 26, Ms Kundu says she realised that the traditional marriage where a woman is meant to be subservient to a man wasn't for her. 

Her ideal relationship, she says, is one that's not rooted in culture, religion or community but is based on "respect, accessibility and acknowledgement".

It's a reasonable ask and an idea many single women I met on Sunday agreed with. 

But India remains a largely patriarchal society where more than 90% of marriages are arranged by family and women have little say in who they marry - leave alone whether they want to marry at all.

But Bhawana Dahiya, a 44-year-old life coach from Gurugram (Gurgaon) near Delhi who's never been married, points out that things are changing and the growing numbers of single women is a cause for celebration.

"We might be a drop in the ocean, but at least there's a drop now," she says. 

"The more examples we have of women being single, the better it is. Traditionally, all conversations were about the husband's career, his plans, the children's school, with little thought given to a woman's choices, but those conversations are now changing.

"We are making a dent in the universe."

[calicostorms]

[ID: 7 gifs from Monkey Man as follows.

Gif 1: Dev Patel as Kid breathing heavily while sweaty. Text beneath reads "Dev Patel suffered a number of injuries during the filming of the movie which included a broken hand, two broken toes, a torn shoulder, and an eye infection." / Gif 2: A slightly jerky gif going down a staircase and slamming into a man. Beneath reads "Due to budget cuts, multiple shots were filmed with GoPros and iPhones."

Gif 3: Dev Patel as the Kid wearing a suit and covered in blood while breathing heavily. Beneath reads "There were only 3 or 4 breakaway tables for one of the scenes, so the crew would glue the tables back together in between takes." / Gif 4: Dev Patel as the Kid wearing a dirty white tank top and a monkey mask while pacing around a boxing ring as people behind cheer. Beneath reads "The film was originally meant to be released straight-to-streaming on Netflix until Jordan Peele saw the film and, feeling it deserved a theatrical release instead, acquired it from Netflix under his Monkeypaw Productions banner, which has a distribution deal with Universal Pictures."

Gif 5: Dev Patel as the Kid in a suit staring resolutely ahead while bathed in purple light as girls dance behind him. Text below says "Due to budget cuts, there were no tops to the tables in the VIP room sequence, so some scenes had to be shot above the shoulders. One of the producers ran his personal credit card to buy the glass to cover the tabletops, so the scene could be finished." / Gif 6: Dev Patel as the Kid in a hotel kitchen stacking dishes. Text below says "Due to the borders being closed during COVID-19, some supporting characters couldn't be on set, so a lot of the filming crew were put in front of a camera."

Gif 7: Dev Patel as the Kid as elevator doors open, backlit by pure red light. He looks determined. Text below reads "The film's description is "John Wick in Mumbai"" /END ID]

MONKEY MAN + trivia 2024, dir. Dev Patel

[flivv-developers]

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) are a lot like mutual funds in that they primarily enable investments in the real estate industry where people purchase units instead of properties and earn returns on their investments. This is mainly for those who merely want to make investments in the real estate market and aren’t seeking to buy any houses. These regulations provide the basis for registering and regulating REITs in the nation. To support the widespread adoption of REITs and the future of REIT in India, the government and authorities have been taking significant steps.

Real Estate market in India post-Covid

The initial worries about a slowdown in the economy and uncertainty caused by COVID have significantly diminished by this point. The market, nevertheless, recovered due to some substantial improvements in the global epidemic era. The first half of 2020 has seen a 49% reduction in sales in the seven largest metropolitan areas of India’s real estate. Incomparably, COVID-19 altered how firms operate worldwide.

Businesses were closed, and the entire globe came to a stop. The pandemic’s significant impact on the housing market is not surprising. During the March shutdown, real estate sales dropped, and only recently have construction activities begun to pick up again in several states.

Real Estate Market in Hyderabad post-Covid

The covid-19 worldwide epidemic is currently front and center in political, social, financial, and health discourse, and it will probably stay that way for a while. The COVID-19 influence on real estate leads to the future of REIT in the Indian market in Hyderabad would have both short and long-term effects on all of the key players in the whole real estate supply chain.

Although it might be referred to as a real estate price adjustment, it is true that before 19, land prices in Hyderabad would decrease. National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) specialists even foresaw a 10–20% decline in prices nationwide.

REIT Adoption in India so far

India had 4 registered REITs as of March 2021, of which three were publicly traded. In India, three REITS are listed:

● Mindspace Business Parks REIT ● Brookfield India Real Estate Trust ● Embassy Office Parks REIT

The SEBI decreased the threshold capital investment in a REIT in 2021 from Rs 50,000 to Rs 10,000–15,000 to increase availability in REITs and encourage more listings. The market regulator also reduced the 200-unit selling lot cap to only one unit following approving the change to the SEBI (Real Estate Investment Trusts) Regulations, 2014.

Future of REIT in India with an impact

The nearly 5 million square foot office REIT portfolio or the future of REIT in India is made up of, Hyderabad, Mumbai Chennai, and Pune, Additionally, over the long term, it is expected that REITs in India will include a variety of asset classes. The popularity of cloud-based services has accelerated in addition to Covid-19 due to developments in Industry 4.0, Big Data, and the Internet of Things. The need for data centers will rise as a result of these.

Lastly, the key to secure investments may be a REIT or a full-fledged proper investment in any property. Investing in the initial stage of any project is beneficial as it is sold at cheaper rates and reaps profits as the value gets appreciated with time. NS Homes is a prime example of easily appreciable property. Secure your investments through Flivv and enjoy returns at the earliest.

Flivv Developers, being one of the stakeholders in the Real Estate industry focuses on securing the interest of the people. Hence, we urge you to choose wisely before making investing decisions. Avail free consultation and contact us to explore newer options.