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Stairwell Escape

It was raining all afternoon and evening so there was no way to go for a walk. The walk is something I particularly look forward in these pandemic times where options are so limited. It is the much needed escape from the day job, monotony and feeling shut-in. All minor problems on their own and in normal times it was not so hard to cope but now the reserves of resilience have been chipped away to nothing.

So as a compromise that day, decided to climb ten flights of stairs in A's apartment building as many times as I could before feeling worn out. It was past dinner time and most people were either home or using the elevators. The stairs were brightly lit and empty. The feeling was spooky but the workout was still better than nothing. There was no joy in the activity and certainly listening to an audio-book was the farthest thought from my mind and yet this stair-climbing activity was my option for change of scenery that day.

Read this quote in a NYT story about epidemiologists see the world today and tomorrow:

“This virus has humbled me as a professional and a person,” said Michelle Odden, associate professor of epidemiology at Stanford. “I did not think this level of failure in a federal response was possible in the United States. We have a lot of work to do.”

For me what was very striking coming from India, is how quickly the population here got desensitized to the death toll numbers. We now loose as many lives that were lost on 9/11 every couple of days and yet there is not even a whimper of outrage. In our individual bubbles which could be of various sizes depending on context - work, family, community, school etc. - life goes on like this does not touch us. I don't recall the loss of human life in America treated quite this way when I first came to the country - it reminds me of the many natural disasters in India during my growing up years and the fatalistic view everyone held about the lives lost - what can anyone do anyway. The living have to live and life must go on. 

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