The Summer of Corona 1: The Days of Uncertainty

Contents

• The Days of Uncertainty
• The Corona Chronicle of Social Information

The Days of Uncertainty

Coronavirus has brought me here after a long time. These are difficult days. So many things are happening around the world and no surprise, all of them are centred only around coronavirus aka COVID19. One prominent thing is the utter uncertainty. Fortunately, we have been able to stay out of harm’s way just by taking a few measures; and one of which is staying indoors during the nationwide lockdown. Sometimes the days are as lifeless as a stone, yet we have very limited options. There is no better way in these trying times to kill the time—like a true privileged person—than creating some graphics.

And a few more...on life, living and solitude:

The Corona Chronicle of Social Information

A dissection of brilliant updates you get from high-school WhatsApp groups 

It is essential to stay up to date with information these days, especially during a pandemic. It is for a simple reason: armed with some updates, you might not die, you will know when the liquor stores are opening or perhaps you will get the information such as when you can go home without taking any help from an effing government’s Samaritan help. Sometimes it might be confusing because of the information overload. There is just too much information but if we take a step back, it is much easier.
How long does it take to go to the WHO’s website and check the information, the latest updates, the guidelines? It also takes only a second to go to Google News to see the updates from some of the credible news sites. Now what is more concerning is the misinformation from social media sites. And nothing can be more annoying than those you get from your high school WhatsApp groups! That’s my point here. 

The corona chronicle of social information is about the ridiculous updates you see on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and mostly on this pain-in-the-ass app called WhatsApp. Occasionally it is funny because you got to see a lot of memes with local context only on the groups on this app and sometimes you get information about your classmates’ families and babies, your high-school crush that you do not care anymore and so on. With close and cool friends, of course, you have another group. 

Here’s a text from one such group that consists of people whom you have not forgotten but cannot remember in the first place:

 If you have forgotten a name, you might remember it when you see the person again. It’s still unclear who added you in such a group but it must be certainly one of those friendly social-minded asses. Just recheck the screenshot again.

She—for all the trouble that I have not taken to remember which section she was even in the Class of 2002—started with a hospital name in bold. I stayed in Delhi for nearly 12 years and know the Ganga Ram is one of the best multi-speciality hospitals in the capital city. Yet, why would she mention the name in bold? For credibility? It is apparent that she had only forwarded it but then that’s what she wanted us to know.

Before we proceed, why are there two dots after ever line? The doctors in the Ganga Ram, no matter how they cannot read their own handwriting, would cringe at this atrocious grammatical blunder. So, it mentioned we ‘postpone travel abroad for two years’. Hey, what about my upcoming trips to Laphumakhong and Namphalong?  

According to the World Tourism Organisation, ‘in 2018, tourism was worth about $1.7 trillion, or about 2% of total global GDP’, while Condor Ferries, a service provider, says the number of ‘business travel is expected to grow to $1.6 trillion in annual spend by 2020’. For pleasure, the pandemic is going to be a setback but how are the people travelling for business going to be reduced? Maybe, the lockdown will cut it down but business is money and as they say money makes the world go round. As everyone knows, closer home, many people are already calling for ways to ease up economic activities howsoever restricted these might be.

Now, the second point: ‘Do not eat outside for one year. ... ....’ That’s how we use dots in the first place: either as one for the period or a three- or four-dot ellipsis.  

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