It Happens ONLY IN INDIA
Not All Masks Are Equal, and a Near-terminal Wait
Fraudulent in love
All the world loves a lover? The Assam police would sigh in disagreement, having taken into custody a certain Biswajit Dutta who, tired of being quartered at home on his beloved’s birthday, decided to take matters into his own hands. Surely love is not love, if government-mandated curfew restrictions get in the way. Dutta’s fix: Rent a car, drive over for a tryst, and, in case he was stopped by the authorities, impersonate a district magistrate. This wasn’t Dutta’s first rodeo—he had previously claimed to be a juvenile lawyer, a member of theDistrict Child Protection Service and even a doctor during the first lockdown in 2020. Looks like he wasn’t just answering love’s clarion call!Source: sentinelassam.com
Back to life
As we live the consequence of the pandemic, the subsequent policy paralysis and the ensuing decimation of our healthcare deliverysystems, 76-year-old Shakuntala Gaikwad’s bizarre case scares the bejesus out of us. Gaikwad who tested positive for COVID-19, was being rushed to Baramati by her family in a bid to find a hospital bed, when she was found unresponsive and declared deceased.
Much grief and, dare we say, commotion later, as Gaikwad was being prepped to meet her maker, she woke up on the bier visibly terrified.Turns out, she had only passed out in the car due to the long wait. Her happy but shocked family quickly rushed her to a hospital.Source: indiatoday.in
Hey Ram
The dominant register of the pandemic response has not only been one of exception, it has often ventured into bizarre. Case in point: In Satna, Madhya Pradesh, sub-inspector Santosh Singh came up with the idea of making people straying outdoors during lockdown write Lord Ram’s name and fill up four pages of a notebook as penance. Lockdown violators have been aplenty, and enforcers have ...
Fraudulent in love
All the world loves a lover? The Assam police would sigh in disagreement, having taken into custody a certain Biswajit Dutta who, tired of being quartered at home on his beloved’s birthday, decided to take matters into his own hands. Surely love is not love, if government-mandated curfew restrictions get in the way. Dutta’s fix: Rent a car, drive over for a tryst, and, in case he was stopped by the authorities, impersonate a district magistrate. This wasn’t Dutta’s first rodeo—he had previously claimed to be a juvenile lawyer, a member of theDistrict Child Protection Service and even a doctor during the first lockdown in 2020. Looks like he wasn’t just answering love’s clarion call!Source: sentinelassam.com
Back to life
As we live the consequence of the pandemic, the subsequent policy paralysis and the ensuing decimation of our healthcare deliverysystems, 76-year-old Shakuntala Gaikwad’s bizarre case scares the bejesus out of us. Gaikwad who tested positive for COVID-19, was being rushed to Baramati by her family in a bid to find a hospital bed, when she was found unresponsive and declared deceased.
Much grief and, dare we say, commotion later, as Gaikwad was being prepped to meet her maker, she woke up on the bier visibly terrified.Turns out, she had only passed out in the car due to the long wait. Her happy but shocked family quickly rushed her to a hospital.Source: indiatoday.in
Hey Ram
The dominant register of the pandemic response has not only been one of exception, it has often ventured into bizarre. Case in point: In Satna, Madhya Pradesh, sub-inspector Santosh Singh came up with the idea of making people straying outdoors during lockdown write Lord Ram’s name and fill up four pages of a notebook as penance. Lockdown violators have been aplenty, and enforcers have run the gamut ofpunishments, but this one is for the books.Source: indiatoday.in
In sickness and in air
Rules don’t apply to the rich, or so it seems thought a couple from Madurai as they took to the skies to solemnize their wedding. In a move that smacks of pure privilege, the duo chartered a Boeing 737, stuffed it with 160 unmasked guests for their wedding ceremony, breaking every COVID-19 guideline in the book. As video and photos of the wedding circulated on social media, SpiceJet claimed the couple told them they were already married and were only taking their guests on a postnuptial joyride. An investigation is underway and the airline crew has been de-rostered.We just think it’s a lot of money to pay to get everyone you love, sick.
Source: hindustantimes.com
Mask on, Mask off
In our monthly ‘Covidiot’ update, we bring you a saffron-clad man of god, wearing a mask of neem. In a viral video, the baba can be seenwearing his precariously constructed mask, replete with wide gaps, stuffed with neem. Further, he instructs we do the same to protect our-selves from the virus, but for premium security we would do well to add a few lemon and tulsi leaves. The logic, if we can even called it that, is “Neem is very useful for any illness.” At the pain of gross simplification: Dear reader, do not swap your masks for the neem–lemon–tulsi variant. As for the baba, we wish him good luck: It’s bound to come in handy, because the mask sure isn’t.
Source: thequint.com