I remember my first visit to the United States over a decade ago. Landing from my small, bustling hometown of Meerut, India, I was instantly awestruck. The silence, the systematic flow of traffic, the lack of honking—it was a world engineered for flawless human convenience. Everything was neat, clean, and in order . For nearly a year, I was hypnotized. I praised this country for its efficiency, its cleanliness, and, notably, its lack of stray animals . Where were the dogs, the cows, the insects that are a normal part of life back home? The US, I thought, was truly a superior model of civilization. My clothes never even collected dust; it seemed the entire landscape was sterilized. But as the years passed, the hypnosis began to fade. I started asking a darker question: What is the price of this perfect order? The Cost of the Empty Road My initial praise for the US was based on what I didn't see: no stray animals, no swarming insects, no dust. I realized this absence wasn't a s...
COVID-19 has not only uprooted economies, but also destroyed individuals both financially and healthwise. My daily routine was brought to a standstill during the second wave of the pandemic, as the notorious disease caught me. But even as the symptoms subsided, the lingering effect of the virus has been disrupting my life. Here I talk about my journey that went through the post-covid recovery and how it reshaped my thinking of health both mentally and physically. After being a victim of corona a lot of things have changed in my body and in my thoughts. I was still working in a college near Chandigarh, when, one early morning while riding towards my work I felt that something was just not right with me. By the time I reached the hostel room of the college, I was just not feeling the energy to move ahead. This happened during the second wave of the pandemic. Private colleges had partially opened and they had allowed some essential staff to stay within the hostel and look after dail...