City: Mumbai

On the 19th of April, 2021, I brought three poets under one roof - on a Zoom call - to capture their thoughts and expressions on the city, the lockdown, and of course, poetry. Presenting Vishakha Khanolkar, 20,  Nadeem Raj, 33, and Vinita Agrawal, 55; true Bombaywallahs and truer poets who gave poetic expression to lockdowns and the emotional toll it took on the society as a whole. Vishakha Khanolkar is Teach for India fellow. When not entertaining a bunch of 8th Standard teens, she writes short stories and poems. Vinita Agarwal, award-winning poet, editor, and curator has done it…

Maharashtra extends lockdown The Maharashtra government has extended the lockdown in the state till 7 am of June 1. New curbs will be imposed on weddings and only 25 people will now be allowed to attend. Only in certain cases, like a funeral or medical emergencies, will people be allowed to travel between different cities or districts in the state. Under these orders, government offices except emergency services related to the pandemic, will open with only 15 percent attendance. Source: DNA India Read more: More people fall prey to online scams during the lockdown Mumbai sounds the alarm on COVID-19…

Last year a nationwide lockdown was suddenly imposed with barely four hours notice, the lockdown this year is a lot different.  For one, the Maharashtra government seems to be more in control. Maharashtra consulted with several stakeholders before imposing the lockdown and considered their views before imposing restrictions.  There have been no sudden announcements this year. In fact, before introducing a fresh round of restrictions, there are enough hints thrown in from the government to prevent panic in the people.  Though the complete day lockdown was introduced only from April 21, 2021, the state’s health minister Rajesh Tope kept referring…

The Maharashtra government’s handling of the 2021 lockdown holds lessons for students of public policy about how a simple tweak in government attitude and policy could prevent so many tragedies and prove beneficial for so many. In April 2020, the sudden closure of rail services and public transport forced migrant workers in many states to flee on trucks, cycles, cement mixers and on foot for hundreds of kilometers back to their villages facing death, starvation and suffering.  Forced by the public outcry, the railways did start Shramik trains. But the 4621 Shramik trains that ferried 63 lakh passengers in 2020-21…

Tetrapods relocated to Band Stand Coastal road construction at Haji Ali has led to the relocation of the iconic seafront tetrapods to Bandra’s Band Stand. But locals are not happy. Officials have claimed that the tetrapods would prevent erosion at Band Stand. However, architect Samarth Das says that the natural bedrock of Band Stand is already a barrier against erosion. Residents in the area say that BMC has dangerously dumped the rocks instead of laying them out in any planned way. Source: Times of India, Free Press Journal Read more: The case against Mumbai's Coastal Road project BMC stops walk-in…

Ketan Kothari, his wife and his neighbour, are visually-impaired and above 45 years of age. When they tried to approach various centres for vaccination in western suburbs of Mumbai, they ended up going to three centres and got turned down for various reasons. The centres were too crowded with high risk of contracting the infection, no special facility for people with disabilities or simply did not have vaccines. Kothari is one of thousands of disabled/specially-abled people, who are facing a number of difficulties while coping with the pandemic and now with vaccination. From accessing the web portals for registrations to…

Vaccination drive halted; city out of doses A lack of vaccine availability has led to all 136 vaccination centres across Mumbai being declared shut until May 2nd. BMC received its last big stock of 1.58 lakh doses on Sunday night. It had then said the stock will last only till Wednesday. On Wednesday night, it received an additional 70,000 doses which too did not last for long. A person waiting in the queue outside NESCO centre on Thursday, April 29th, said that “No one picks up the helpline numbers. They are dead most of the time." Many residents have noted…

On 27th April 2021, the COVID figures released by Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (commonly referred to as MCGM or BMC) showed the count of positive patients in the city at 66,045.  The positivity rate in Mumbai stands at over 13% which means that approximately 1 out every 8 people getting tested is infected with the virus. Though numbers have been falling over the past week, Mumbai continues to be the worst-affected in Maharashtra. Newer hotspots in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region such as Kalyan-Dombivli, Thane, and Navi Mumbai, are mushrooming. The government is struggling to ramp up health infrastructure even…

Our new refrigerator is arriving, and with it we can be sure of something else – Thermocol as voluminous as the fridge itself. Not so long ago, lunch at the food court meant eating off a Styrofoam plate. What really is Thermocol and Styrofoam? What is Thermocol and Styrofoam? Thermocol and Styrofoam are brand names – the former by BASF and the latter by Dow Chemicals. Thermocol is an EPS (Expanded Polystyrene) and Styrofoam is an XPS (Extruded Polystyrene). Both these polystyrene products are derived from petroleum, just like plastic. Thermocol is so popular that any EPS/XPS is generically called…

With Mumbai recording 7367 Covid-19 cases and 75 deaths as on April 22, the second wave of the pandemic has overwhelmed the maximum city.  Mumbai has reported more than 1.38 lakh cases in April alone so far whereas in  September 2020, during the ‘first wave’, the city had reported 57,755 cases.  Until April 23, Mumbai has conducted 51.22 lakh tests and has reported 11.75% test positivity rate till date. The city’s healthcare infrastructure is under strain with only 7139 COVID beds vacant as on April 22. Of these, only 42 are ICU beds and only 21 are ventilator beds that…