The Last of Us and Our Stories of Hope

Abhishek JhaLeave a comment

Human suffering comes in many shapes and forms. There is one kind that an individual goes through in his life, not because of a particular central external reason but because of his individual choices or due to what we sometimes refer to as ‘fate’. Fate is not a word rational people really like to hear but here is an example – a person who smokes a pack of cigarettes every day is making a choice. If cancer gets to him one day, there isn’t much he can blame the world for. On the other hand, if someone isn’t into any such harmful habit or say, a newborn gets cancer, there isn’t much externally available to blame. You could point at environmental factors, and it could be true. However, there are others living around who are not affected and spend a medically decent life.

What we don’t understand gets thrown into this bucket of ‘fate’. So, there is this suffering attached intrinsically to your life’s journey – some common, some rare. We all have gone through our own share of suffering at different points in life.

Another kind that we have seen very recently, starting from the year 2020, is the suffering that’s common to the entire society – where a whole city, country, or the entire world suffers because of mainly two factors – catastrophes – natural or man-made. An unexpected flood, a Tsunami, an earthquake – we suffer as a single population – some are less impacted than others but there is suffering at every level. The man-made ones – a war, a partition, an exodus, a pandemic – can also cause suffering to an entire population. When it comes to a war or a locally contained natural disaster, there is a world that remains directly untouched, sometimes even unaware for several reasons. However, the recent pandemic, perhaps for the first time in the last two-three generations has caused immeasurable suffering across the world. A virus kept mutating and tormenting the world and all we could do was just sit and watch things happening to us and havoc being wreaked upon our lives. Everyone I know lost someone in these last couple of years. People who otherwise had no reason to leave this world had to go without having a chance to be near their loved ones in their final moments. Infection, symptoms, quarantine, suffering, hospitalization or its denial, oxygen shortage, waiting, more suffering, death – it was a matter of going through the motions – like things had to happen sooner or later, and there wasn’t anything one could do about it except being ‘careful’, as careful you could be, given the circumstances.

People have spoken and written about the lessons from the pandemic at length, many of them already forgotten or lost in the second or 2000th page of the internet and of our own minds. I would however like to recall just one thing, the biggest one perhaps from all of it – that human suffering is alike across the world at a fundamental level – money, power, poverty – all of them – do cause differentiations till a certain point but when the universal suffering endures, the artificial layers peel off, sometimes on the very first hit and sometimes taking a few more hours on the clock. The result – we are all exposed.

The TV Series ‘The Last of Us’ based on a 2013 video game plot wherein a pandemic is caused by a mass fungal infection forcing its hosts to transform into zombies is thankfully not about the zombies. It is about the humans, as they were before they turned into these zombies, or how they survived the next attack. It is about their lives and the hundred thousand ways they have been tormented by the pandemic. The show takes us through a post-apocalyptic world of 2023 with the help of a few characters who either get infected or don’t but suffer all the same, much like what transpired in the last couple of years with the real pandemic. The writers with their characters zoom in on individual suffering as a study of human suffering in general and deliver the message of pain through your screens to your heart. I know someone who lost her child a day before the delivery was due, I also know a 79-80 years old gentleman who was working on a book and editing articles for a magazine and died being concerned about their completion in the hospital ward. I know someone who refused to go to the hospital and died and I know someone who went to the hospital in time and died nevertheless. I know a 20-something who had to take care of his infected parents for about a couple of months while being infected himself. When I watched the show, episode after episode, these faces appeared in front of me through the characters who suffered on screen. So many promises and plans just lying there, floating over the searing funeral air, undelivered, now orphaned, and unclaimed – that your spirit begins to crumble and hope seems to be a pointless concept.

While the show starts with a grim assessment by scientists, the flame of hope doesn’t go out. It was hope, a hope of medicines or a vaccine, a hope of immunity kicking in, a hope that we would be able to survive – that has carried us to where we stand today. I do not know how the show ends at this point in time and maybe we will never know what series of pandemics are still in store for us humans in the real world – but I know an Indian doctor who served without a pause in one of the remotest regions where people could ill-afford quality healthcare during the pandemic and helped thousands of patients at the area hospital as well as over phone calls and WhatsApp. So, we keep the hope alive, at least as long as we have such people walking amongst us. Things may or may not get better but even if they don’t, whenever the last of us tell our story, they will zoom in on our common suffering and the hope we kept lit in our hearts till our last breath.

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BLF2020 | The Masked Intruder: Pandemic and You

TheSeer TeamLeave a comment

What could be a more relevant discussion during these pandemic times than having three versatile panelists discuss at length about it!

Amandeep Sandhu opened the conversation with his view on how in the last 9 months, as a nation, we had a strange emotional graph from denial, bravado, to freezing and then abandonment. His first question to Anna Chandy, a psychology counsellor, was on her recollection of advances made as a nation before the pandemic. Anna said that she views the world as pre, and post-March 2020 and feels that good progress was made in mental health. She also elaborated on 3 types of mental health – public, societal, and self-stigma. Because of uncertainty since post-March 2020, mental health conversations were hijacked by people who do not have the competence and thus the progress was reversed. This resulted in the cornering of suffers and their families.

Amandeep asked Dr. Farah, a family physician in Narayana and an author, to tell more on her book “Newborns and New Moms”. Dr. Farah explained how despite being a doctor, no professional education prepared her for the life of motherhood.  She said that her book was a step by step guide for mothers. Especially during pandemic times where the work boundaries are not respected and mothers have suffered more, the book has helped many mothers.

The conversation then moved onto drawing parallels between mental health and COVID. How both sneak up to us without realizing and both cause short- and long-term damage.

Anna put across that depression and anxiety are pandemic too, but without a lockdown. Stigma and society exclusion are the commonality between them, thus punishing the patients for something that is beyond their control. She also compared the seriousness of the entire situation to World War II. The next generations will have an impact on the psychological construct, and it will play out differently when they are adults. She said that this is not being spoken about as much as it should be.

Amandeep steered the conversation to Dr. Farah on whether there was a change in statistics related to infant mortality, TB patients, diabetics etc. He wondered aloud on how are they managing post-COVID?

Dr. Farah gave insights from her experiences. She said that doctors racked their brains to understand why there was a decline in heart attack patients coming in emergencies. Is it fear to report or have the incidences reduced due to less pollution and commuting? Narrating a few stories of her patients, she brought about the aspect of psychological effects on all ages. It was heartening to hear her story about her son who is under the autism spectrum, progressed in his speech in the last few months. She accounted for this change to the attention and time children are receiving from parents. She said that a lot depended on how patient parents are with their kids.

Continuing the conversation, Anna spoke about the changes going on inside the counselling circles. She said that people from age groups 25-30 are reaching out and openly seeking support.

The discussion proceeded to serious impacts on women and their monthly cycles. Dr. Farah had many examples to share in this regard. She strongly sent out the message that most problems are psychological where the body is manifesting itself and reaching out for help. Anna aptly made a strong recommendation to the book “The body keeps a score” by Bessel van der Kolk.

When Amandeep asked her views on collectivism, she said that most Asian countries are collectivist society, where the needs of the groups take priority and are thus governed by group laws. These laws are mostly unsaid, covert, and transmitted silently on how to be or not to be.

She brought about the advantage of such societies and pandemics is an opportunity to work in groups to our advantage. She also said that different communities are dealing with pandemic differently. In smaller towns, community support is higher.

Anna had an interesting take on dealing with pandemics and quoted the ABC concept. A – Accounting for your feelings, B – managing anxiety through breathing, C – care and communication. She also suggested that this is the time to ask fundamental existential questions if one has faced job loss.

The last leg of this discussion turned very exciting as Dr. Farah stood up, removed her mask and performed a rap sporting demo of one of her parodies on “Apna time aayega”. The parody was a take on how messed up every mother’s Sunday is. Her intent of these parodies is to send across feminist messaging through a lighter medium.

With that delightful performance, the last question was, who is actually the masked intruder?

Anna, Dr. Farah and Amandeep had variations but primarily the same answers – “ourselves”, “the selective versions of ourselves”, “our fearful selves” are the mask intruders.

Amandeep gave a heartfelt dedication of this session to all the front-line staff who seamlessly work for the safety of all of us during these thought times!

About the Author: Neha Agrawal carries a spirit of positivism and a smile that emanates from the heart and wants to reach out to the world. She dreams to make this world an inclusive one. She works as a strategic leader heading multiple areas like inclusion & diversity, corporate social responsibility and organization culture. She is a public speaker and an influencer. She loves travelling, especially to the mountains. She writes poetry under the handle #fursatkealfaaz on Instagram, enjoys reading and having conversations. She currently writes for TheSeer.

Policemen force two men to do sit ups for flouting the lockdown rules, at Dharampura Bazar in Patiala on 24 March 2020 | PTI

COVID-19, Lockdowns, and Our ‘Typical Indian Problems’

Abhishek JhaLeave a comment

We have now crossed the 100,000 mark. Every new day is beating the previous record of one day spike in the number of COVID-19 cases. The numbers refuse to budge. Lockdowns have gotten feebler every passing phase. The state leaderships which were collecting adulatory coins till now on social media from film stars, seem to be giving up in a very trumpesque manner. One look at different state governments tells you what they are keeping busy with. Fighting litigations to open Tasmac shops, fudging the numbers on coronavirus, choosing to deliberately get oblivious of the violations of social distancing and lockdown norms by the high and mighty, and cancelling emergency trains because the builders can decide the rights of a poor Indian in a closed door meeting with the Chief Minister, we have seen everything.

Considering the difficulty of our time, the socio-economic diversity of our country, and of course our population, the chinks we are developing are inevitable. In spite of these misdemeanours, the government and bureaucracy have been toiling to contain the pandemic. The pressure to do better than other affected countries is palpable on the face of our leaders. The inconsistencies that we have seen in our political class and bureaucracy is a reminder for us to notice similar patterns in citizens too. While many have cooperated with the law enforcement agencies and the local administration, a huge number for some reason, is determined to dilute all the efforts and our national discipline, assuming it exists.

Back in my hometown, I remember something distinctly from my childhood. I would watch these individuals boarding a bus and on being asked for the ticket charge, they would just utter the word ‘staff’. That was the magic word. Some conductors did not dig deeper than this. A few would ask for an identity card. This would invariably turn into some sort of argument. The word – staff, was just one word from the freeloader (tu jaanta nahi main kaun hoon) vocabulary. This is still common in many parts of our country. I am sure you have seen words like ‘Army’, ‘Police’ on motorbikes and cars. Those are declarations of authority. Even when these vehicles are not being driven by the original owners, these signs have the same power. The point is, once we are made aware of this sort of vocabulary, we use these words whenever we are bending the system for our benefit. In effect, most of the people on the streets are either powerful in some way or are pretending to be. Ask any dhaabawala how many policemen pay their bills.

Last week, I ventured out after about 10 days to get some vegetables and while I was picking my veggies, a woman appeared out from a car without a mask towards the shop. When I asked her about her mask, she went back reluctantly towards the car but came back empowered with the male company who was on the wheels. On being asked again, they went into an argument overkill to defend their choice – “you don’t tell me, who are you?”. All that did not surprise me. In fact, when I answered with – “I am a citizen of this country, and I have a right to point it out if you are doing something so wrong for public health”, she dug into her freeloader vocabulary and retorted – “I’m a doctor. So I know. You don’t tell me!” If only irony were an academic discipline, this lady would win a Nobel.

Delhi customs has confiscated illegal export consignment of PPE kits. Karnataka government has already received requests for opening up mosques for prayers from MLC C.M. Ibrahim. People are coming out in large numbers for religious congregations, Maharashtra is doing everything that could be seen as opposite of a lockdown. It is almost as if people are volunteering for herd immunity by infection. All my visits to the bazaar have brought me face to face with people who don’t care about following social distancing norms or wearing a mask. Closer home, a house had some religious ceremony and entertained guests over a period of 3 days. A neighbour has carried out a complete makeover of his house using around 5-7 workers every day of the lockdown. These workers took the masks from their pockets only when I happened to request them. At all other times, they stayed inside the pockets. Interestingly, the homeowners used masks for themselves. After initial prohibitions from the governments on spitting in public places, I had hoped for some change. I didn’t realise spitting is something that completes our Indianness.

I’m sure you must have come across such situations in your own outings during these lockdowns. Of course, I am assuming you are not the one violating these norms in the first place. Now that the governments have given up on the lockdown restrictions and we are on our own, it is perhaps time to look into our behaviour as individuals during the last couple of months. Our attitude, both at the beginning and now, can finally explain the ‘typical Indian’ problems. I list a few of them here –

  1. Why do we indulge in rash driving and honk like we are composing some Bollywood ‘item number’?
  2. Why does our saliva keep asking for ‘aazadi’ from us every time we come out in public spaces?
  3. Why do our public hospitals spread more diseases than they cure? 
  4. Why does corruption fit so well under ‘essential services’ for us? 
  5. Why have our ponds, lakes, and rivers shapeshifted into exaggerated drains?
  6. Why do we smoke, pee everywhere apart from the places designated for them?  
  7. Why queues are synonymous with waterboarding for Indians?
  8. Why do Indian women get the definition of women-empowerment wrong so often? 
  9. Why do Indian men deny the existence of condoms?

When I met these defaulters during my lockdown outings, most of the responses betrayed a sense of invincibility, like ‘it’s nothing, it won’t happen to me’. Another response tried to tell me that since I was safe by following the rules, I should keep shut and not bother others. It is not innocence. It is not any sort of self-sacrifice. It is just a refusal to fall in line, a refusal of responsibility. We do not care. We are great at throwing the blame on someone else. It’s not that we don’t care at all, we do. In fact, as Manu Joseph puts it, we have ‘immense stamina for useless issues’. For example, we care enough to slap a film-maker because his film hurts our group-pride. However, no amount of gutkha spitting hurts our group pride because we haven’t yet identified with any group that takes offence for gutkha spitting. Of course, Maharana Pratap didn’t sacrifice his life fighting the gutkha spewers, how can we take offence for that then?

 

The group that is still largely unrealized and unknown in our land is called ‘enlightened citizenry’, a concept discussed in detail by Swami Ranganathananda in his lecture and now book on Enlightened Citizenship and our Democracy. An individual’s awareness of his social responsibility is at the centre of such a citizenship. Since we have not yet understood this difference between an ordinary ‘adult citizenship’ and an ‘enlightened’ one, our other group associations dominate enlightened citizenry for much of our lifetime. It is up to us then to step back every time our pride is wounded and identify the group we are associating with to inflict this wound upon ourselves. If we find that this group is anything other than ‘enlightened citizenry’, we have our answer to most of the problems that begin with ‘a typical Indian..’.

 

Cover Image: Policemen force two men to do sit ups for flouting the lockdown rules, at Dharampura Bazar in Patiala on 24 March 2020 | PTI

 

Dr. Nonita Mittal - Interview with The Seer

In Conversation with a COVID-19 Warrior and Survivor

TheSeer TeamLeave a comment

Dr. Nonita Mittal pursued her medical education from Armed Forces Medical College in Pune, India. After graduation, she worked as a research scholar with the pediatric hematology-oncology team at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh for a year. She was involved in development of a decision aid website for patients and caregivers with Sickle Cell Disease. She went on to pursue residency in general pediatrics at SUNY Downstate Health University Center in Brooklyn, New York. 

Brooklyn was one of the worst affected areas by COVID-19 pandemic. The positive test rates for COVID-19 in central Brooklyn have averaged from 63%-78% with a disproportionately higher mortality rate amongst its population as per preliminary data from NY DOH. Dr. Nonita Mittal is currently in her final year of residency and was closely involved in taking care of COVID-19 patients in this area. She got infected with COVID-19 while taking care of one of such patients early in the epidemic and recovered from it successfully. We spoke with her about her time during self-quarantine, her work, and other matters related to COVID-19 with twin intentions of expressing our gratitude to her and making our readers more aware.

Disclaimer – Please note that the medical details discussed in this interview are not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, it is provided for educational purposes only. You assume full responsibility for how you choose to use this information. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider before starting any new treatment or discontinuing an existing treatment. Talk with your healthcare provider about any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

 
Healthcare professionals face a bigger risk of getting infected by COVID-19 because they are active on duty while many of us can work from home. We are so relieved to hear that you have recovered from COVID-19. We would like to hear from you some details of your own journey to recovery. 

For the first seven days, I mainly had severe headaches and sore throat that evolved into fever and chest congestion. I took Tylenol round the clock for fever and muscle aches. For my sore throat and congestion, I drank lots of water with hot lemon ginger tea 3-4 times a day. On the 8th day, I started having difficulty breathing. I was in touch with the physician over the phone who recommended monitoring oxygen saturation using a portable pulse oximeter and albuterol inhalation every 4 hours. I was instructed to come to the emergency if my saturations dropped below 92% or my difficulty while breathing was not relieved even with the albuterol. Thankfully, I responded well, and by day 10 most of my symptoms resolved. I monitored my temperature closely throughout, and once I stopped having fevers, I returned back to work. COVID testing at the time was only approved for hospitalized patients, and hence, I was not able to get it.

 

You are back to work. When this disease is evoking such great fears and shock in even unaffected people, what makes you go back to work after having seen it so closely?

Being affected from COVID-19 made me realize how scary it can be to go through something you have no clue about. It actually strengthened my resolve to go back to work and help those inflicted from COVID-19 as much as I could. In addition, when I was quarantined, my colleagues were covering my shifts and putting their lives at risk, so it was only fair that as soon as I recovered, I did the same for them. I became a physician to help those in need and now when the situation demands it, I felt I had to step up to my cause. 

 

This is a disease that is not yet properly understood by people, and perhaps statistics is the last thing a patient wants to understand. The emotions must be running high. So, what are the questions patients are asking their doctors?

Most of the patients and their families want to know about treatment options. There is a lot of curiosity regarding the effectiveness of Hydroxychloroquine and Remdesevir. There are no randomized clinical trials to prove their efficacy, however, the prelim data from certain institutes shows Remdesevir to be promising. Patients do ask regarding outcomes, but the course of COVID is so variable that it is hard to predict the outcome in any one. The only thing we can say with surety is that patients with comorbid conditions like obesity, kidney disease, or diabetes have worse outcomes. 

 

This, of course, is bringing mental trauma to patients and family members alike. What are the steps being taken by medical authorities and governments in the US to provide adequate support to the affected. Is there anything specific you would like to mention?

The government support has been very slow and inadequate. Center and state have been giving mixed messages which makes it difficult for people to follow the quarantine guidelines. In a pandemic, it is vital to build the trust between the leader and the people, and the leader has to walk the walk too. 

At the medical level, despite all the chaos, the healthcare teams have been trying to update the families with the daily progress. Many people who tested positive for COVID antibodies are donating convalescent plasma. Steps have been taken to provide telehealth and remote pastor services for those affected. Many local philanthropic organisations like World Health Kitchen have risen to the occasion to provide food for everyone working at the hospital. And there have been many anonymous donations for PPE for the healthcare worker and family members alike.  

 

How are you protecting your family during the present crisis? What are the precautions or steps you are taking to see that the family members remain untouched by the disease? Also, how are they responding to your decision to go back to work after recovering?

Me and family make sure that we practice social distancing and frequent hand washing. We have also designated a dirty area and clean area at home. Every item from outside is first placed in the dirty area, and only brought inside after being sanitized with bleach/alcohol wipes. After returning from the hospital, I immediately take shower, wash my clothes, and sanitize any article that I carried with me. Wearing a mask is mandatory in New York now, and we abide by it. 

I stay with my husband. Luckily, I don’t  have anyone vulnerable staying with me like our parents or elderly, so I can get by without quarantine at home. My parents and in-laws are in India, so they were worried about me going back to work which is understandable. My husband refused to leave me alone when I got COVID, and he ended up getting it too. So, he has been very supportive of me going back to work as we both agree that it is our responsibility to help others who are dealing with it. 

 

What are a few misconceptions you have come across about this disease through the course of your work with patients? 

We are still learning about the disease ourselves. Some of the few misconceptions are that this disease only affects the old and is limited to lungs, Physicians across US agree that COVID is a systemic disease. Patients have an increased tendency to form clots. These clots can affect any organ of the body including kidney, heart, nervous system or intestines. Both young and old have died due to this disease, and it is hard to say at this point what is the exact cause of the death in these patients. We will have to wait for the results of data analysis across the institutes to get some of these answers. Also, there is no miracle drug and if you do not follow social distancing you will get sick no matter how healthy you are. Hence, it is very important that emphasis is laid on prevention rather than cure.

 

There are already groups on the street demanding the resumption of business as usual. How does it affect the battle against this pandemic and does it hit your morale?

These groups have a good reason to protest. The lockdown has hurt the economy terribly and some groups are affected more than the others. The economic battle is part of the battle against the pandemic and does not affect my morale. However, it does signify lack of awareness regarding the seriousness of this disease. It will be hard to find the right balance between preserving health versus economy, but it is also an opportunity for everyone to come together and support each other to handle this situation in the best possible way.

 

There is news of discrimination against the medical professionals in several countries. India has already introduced an ordinance to prevent such discrimination and violence against the medical staff. Are you seeing such things happening in the US?

Yes, I have witnessed such instances personally too, although not at the same scale as in India. Once in a while a cab driver may refuse to pick you up from hospital or someone in the building may accuse you of putting others at risk by bringing all the bugs from hospital. But mostly, the experience has been appreciative towards the healthcare workers, and everyone has tried to help in whatever way they can. 

 

This pandemic has caught most of the countries unaware. Do you think we are going to be better prepared in the future, if such a thing happens again? What changes have you noticed in the medical fraternity’s own approaches and methods before and after?

Yes, definitely. The medical fraternity is more prepared to handle such crises in future. The resources and staff have been allocated to deal with any surges that may happen in the future. The hospital administrators communicate with the staff on a daily basis to educate regarding COVID management strategies, new developments, and dispel any false information. More funding is being diverted to public health initiatives and research pertaining to understanding and treating COVID-19.

 

What are you looking forward to most once the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us?

Of course, I am looking forward to enjoying the outdoors like I used to before. But this pandemic has also made me appreciate all the little things that I took granted for earlier. I make an effort to keep in touch with my friends and family, and I have learnt to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. So, once this pandemic is behind us, I hope all of us will not forget the precious lessons that it taught us, and bring a change in the way we see and live our lives. I thank God daily for what I have, and intend to live my life with gratitude in years to come. 

The Literature World is Already Adapting to the New Normal

Aakanksha SinghLeave a comment

Nothing else seems on everyone’s minds other than the coronavirus pandemic. It has brought entire countries to a standstill. It has brought individual lives to a stop. It has completely changed the way we live, for now. As a result, things have suddenly become more online than physical, from education to office work. The pertinent need for social distancing has brought about this social change.

The world in the pre-corona era saw a resurgence of independent bookstores, but now once again literature has to carve a space in the online sphere and so far, it has embraced this online transformation quite well. Following the lock down rules in India, bookstores and publication houses have been shut down. With that, literary readings, book launches, author sign ups, engaging discussions, and talks have also ceased for the time being.

So where do we go from here?

If one has stable internet and a computer system or a smartphone, for now, a home will suffice. This is because several publication houses, authors, collectives and organisations have turned to the digital medium so that there is not a complete cut off for literature lovers. We can get our dose of literary fun in these trying times too.

 

 

Reading with Kids

Schools and colleges were the first to be shut in March when the coronavirus reared its ugly head in the country. This led to this unexpected scenario where the kids are suddenly home and it is not even summer vacation. The parents were unprepared and so were the schools for this vacuum. The parents had the double task now of working from home themselves as well as keeping the kids engaged.

Some of the initial online literary ventures, thus, focused on kids and getting them to use this spare time to read more since they were forced to be indoors.

An online Facebook Group, Reading Racoons, started #ThodaReadingCorona where till 31st of March everyday at 11am, a video was posted of different children books’ authors reading excerpts from their respective books.

Penguin too launched its series #OnceUponATimeWithPenguin, which lasted till the 1st part of the lockdown.

 

 

Diverse Literary Initiatives

Slowly, as the lockdown got enforced throughout the country, similar events were organised by more publishing houses and literary collectives too. Juggernaut Books in association with the scroll.in perhaps started the first online literary fest, ReadInstead, where celebrities and authors from diverse backgrounds either read book excerpts or discussed them. They post their weekly schedule every Thursday and the videos go live at 1pm. Check out their latest schedule for this week here.

Roli Books has also transformed into Roli Pulse where they conduct panel discussions rather than only having author readings. Zubaan Books joined the bandwagon this week when it began a webinar series discussing myriad perspectives and issues the country faces while battling COVID 19.

 

 

Is It Worth It?

All this begs the question how important and effective are these online ventures? For one, they provide succor to all literature lovers and getting kids to read more is always appreciated. For another, they help literature lovers remain rooted, sane, and well informed even when they cannot physically attend such programmes.

In the age of petty social media distractions and mindless scrolling, such events are a far better alternative. If after three weeks of lockdown, one is thoroughly exasperated by Netflix shows and TV channels, these events are there for you to learn and enjoy.

So, even when and if the lockdown gets eased, these events should continue because of the knowledge they help to disseminate. They do away with physical hurdles of space and are more accessible, albeit with certain technological requirements. You do not have to be in that location or venue to attend the event. You can enjoy all the literary gems from the comfort of your home, sitting on your favourite couch with a pair of headphones. In a way, they could make for the perfect literature festival!

Not to mention they are free of cost and do not carry with them the hustle and bustle of usual literary events or literary festivals. So, if you want to hear your favourite author, you do not have to go through their itinerary or push through hordes of other fans, just sit back and enjoy!

Social distancing might become a norm in the foreseeable future, at least till the pandemic does not recede. Hence, having online literary events and festivals seem an excellent way to keep oneself engaged. They are also innovative models conceptualized by publishing houses or bookstores to remain in business while continuing engagement between readers and writers.

However, in this new world of incessant online communication, the only drawback of the online literary festivals is the online aspect itself. For how many hours can one be attached to a computer? It is one thing to log in and enjoy an insightful online discussion once in a while. But after being constantly logged in, there is a danger of being saturated with it. One would then long for the closeness and human touch of an actual physical event!

Though one possible solution for this is to subscribe to podcasts rather than visual literary festivals, for now, we have in our grasp, well curated talks and readings! Literature now has moved on to greener pastures: the online pastures!

Online Literary Festivals You Should Check Out:

1. The pioneer of literary festivals in India, Jaipur literature Festival, started its digital version which is aptly called, Brave New World.

2. Women’s Web’s #SheReads invites female authors to read and discuss their works. One excellent talk is by Anukrti Upadhyay, author of Daura.

3. Bound India is a great platform to know more about books and budding writers. With the lockdown, they also began a plethora of useful writing workshops and online classes. Their podcasts are a great option for those who are tired of their screens!

4. Harper Collins in collaboration with Algebra: the Arts and Ideas Club initiated RESET that hosts conversations with Harper authors. We recommend checking out their #Lockdown Poetry section where authors read their favourite poems!

5. The Curious Reader’s has two interesting series on its Instagram page: One where authors talk about their work and the other related to staying sane during the lockdown, #StaySafeStaySane

So, spend some quality time brushing up your literary knowledge and exploring its many areas through these and many more such online literary initiatives!