CITIZEN JOURNALISM

School seems a memory of the remote past. The play dates have stopped too. Add to it a general sense of foreboding, constant restrictions and in some cases, illness and death witnessed in very close circles. Children, both my own and among friends and family I've spoken to, are terrified with what's going on. They're also lost and confused. First, they're afraid of catching the virus themselves. My 8-year old keeps smelling things all day to ensure he hasn't lost his sense of smell. If he feels hot (it's summer), he asks us to take his temperature. If his legs…

[Based on a conversation with Dr P V Karthik] In the fight against the current COVID tsunami that’s engulfing us, we, along with a group of amazing volunteers (most of them being young college students and young working professionals), have been trying to respond to SOS tweets and alerts coming in from various parts of the country. With the number of SOS cases increasing from Chennai, we assembled a dedicated team of volunteers to cater to region-specific requests.  Those who made calls to hospitals in the last 3-4 days will know how difficult it is to get a bed in…

Coronavirus is devastating and many families have lost multiple members due to the infection. We are seeing many young people losing lives. We have a recommendation for parents with young children. Please make a plan for your child/children if and when you fall sick. Identify family or friends in the community, or in the city, who will take care of them, even if your child is suspected to have COVID and needs care-taking. That means that the care-giver should not have elderly parents or co-morbidities which would not allow them to offer this support. Tough as it may be, do…

The devastation that we see around us today caused by the second wave of COVID-19 in the country, is not just because of the rates of contagion and the virulence of the disease, but also — and perhaps, more significantly — because of the crunch in life-saving resources. Especially something we have always taken for granted — Oxygen.  But why did the country run short of oxygen and have we been able to find solutions to tide over the shortage? Although oxygen is the element primarily responsible for sustaining life on planet Earth and constitutes 21% of the atmosphere, oxygen…

The usually quiet police station of Kumbalgodu, located on the outskirts of Bengaluru enroute to Mysuru, saw some unusual activity a few weeks ago.  A group of about 50 residents of the neighbourhood had landed up to file a complaint.  Residents at the Kumbalgodu Police Station, March 2021. Pic: Nikhil Tiwari The trigger was a major fire that had broken out on the banks of the nearby Vrishabhavathi river and which had spread dangerously close to their homes. This was just the most recent in a series of fires that have been noticed on the river's banks over the past…

Phase III of the country's largest vaccination drive has been officially launched from May 1, 2021, where the youth of the country aged between 18 to 44 years will get themselves vaccinated. Remember, the vaccine, whichever you take, does not make you immune from the virus. But it does reduce the severity of its effects. With the new order, the government has made it compulsory for all above 18 years to get vaccinated. However, due to the surge of COVID cases in India, a few states have delayed the vaccination drive, though registrations began on April 28, 2021. This has…

Pandemic or no pandemic, when it comes to urban mobility especially in cities like Bengaluru, the reality is that the private vehicle is here to stay, whether powered by petrol or electricity, and along with it, traffic jams. But even if public transport buses and Metros were running normally, is it possible to determine the factors that affect an individual's choice of a particular mode of transport? If such factors are identified, they could then be included in public decision-making. For example, if it is determined that distance to a transit station is the key factor in people using cars,…

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…

Scrambling between a COVID-positive mother and a COVID-positive father, I was getting exhausted. Given the deluge of cases and the shortage of beds in Delhi's hospitals, we had decided to home quarantine, but I was now wondering if it had been a good idea. My father's oxygen levels had started dropping. The doctor told me not to get anxious. Oxygen levels do fluctuate, but if we could get an oxygen concentrator at home it would relieve some of the tension. The oxygen situation in the hospitals was anyway uncertain, and with several friends and family members in other houses also…

For three-and-a-half-year-old Aadi (name changed) with cerebral palsy, a good book - Thottu Paru Poochi - was all it took to direct his boisterous energy into reading. Despite it being the first book he was ever introduced to, Aadi engaged with it immediately, and after a few readings, he was turning the pages independently on his screen reader and attempting to vocalize the sounds. Reading tends to have that effect - simultaneously teaching and entertaining, giving delight, enticing the reader to persist, to explore and experiment.  The birth of ARM For many like Aadi, accessible libraries are the only gateway…