Innholdsfortegnelse for April 6, 2020 i India Today

The deadly coronavirus has activated the most primal instinct of the human race—survival. Entire nations are locking down, shutting off borders, cancelling flights and breaking contact with the rest of the world. Globalisation is now being replaced by isolationism as nations struggle to shield their populations from the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic and contain its spread within their borders. At the time of writing this, 423,724 people have been infected across the globe and 18,925 persons have died. With 470 active COVID-19 cases and nine casualties, India hasn’t faced the brunt of the virus yet. There are fears that these numbers could rapidly spike if and when we witness the dreaded Stage 3 of community transmission, where a large proportion of the population becomes infected, as is being seen in other…

Q Why did you accept the Rajya Sabha nomination so soon after demitting the office of the Chief Justice of India? Shouldn’t there have been a cooling-off period? A. Why should I not have accepted it? When the president of the country makes an offer under Article 80, you don’t refuse it. When the nation wants your services, should you refuse that? As far as a cooling-off period is concerned, tell me, under what law or rule can the cooling-off period be visualised? If [it] is required, please make a law for [it]. Also, if a cooling-off period is applied, how do you [then] man the tribunals that have to be headed by retired Supreme Court judges? It is for the executive or the policymakers to prescribe a norm for…

Don’t step out of the house or entertain outsiders and unnecessary visitors If alone, call the HelpAge India helpline number (1800 180 1253) or the local police station and its teams working for the elderly for prompt response If you can’t go out of your house for some fresh air and are missing your walks, do yoga and free-hand exercises. Stay in the balcony and look to the sun for some cheer. Include protein, fruits and vegetables in your diet to boost immunity If you live with your family, spend quality time with them. Play indoor games with your grandchildren. Share recipes with your sons- or daughters-in-law. Take out an old photo album and revisit the milestones in your life.…

1 CORONAUTHORITARIANISM The global consensus on social distancing makes it clear that this is not just the best practice but our only answer to the COVID-19 pandemic. Shutting down, regardless of the very real economic consequences for the poor, and in lieu of adequate testing capability, has been the Indian government’s response too. While the argument that these measures are necessary for our safety is compelling, we must also be wary that current social controls—including extraordinary powers of surveillance and the policing of free movement—don’t extend into a future in which we passively permit our civil liberties to be encroached upon. 2 #COVIDIOTS This hashtag is a manifestation of social media call-out culture, its frequent bullying, shaming and groupthink. It’s not enough simply to do right, but one must…

A day after he resigned as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath flew into Delhi and was ensconced in his residence at 1, Tughlaq Road, from where over the years he has fought and won many an electoral battle for the Congress as well as played a role in the downfall of a couple of opposition-led central governments. This March, in a bitter twist of irony, he found himself at the receiving end, blindsided by a colleague 24 years his junior. It cost him the hard-earned chief ministership of a state that the Congress won just 15 months ago. In his study, pictures of key members of the Nehru-Gandhi family whom he has worked with adorn the wall behind his desk. The one that finds centre stage is…

Call it quarantine, isolation, social distancing, a lockdown or a Lakshman rekha, it’s really the fact that an entire nation of more than a billion is experiencing this crisis together that makes it so uncanny. From the eerily empty streets to the disconcertingly clear skies to the looming intimacy of our own homes, the pandemic has trapped us all in a twilight zone of unknown terrors amidst comforting familiarity. Bracing for the worst of the illness, we are already reeling from the shock treatment we must hope is a cure. In these extraordinarily unsettling times, it’s important to focus on solutions to the many challenges we’re going to face, from the family home to the frontlines of healthcare. We’ll all be learning to cope as we go along, but here’s…

1 WORKING (IT) OUT MANPREET SINGH, Rudrapur The start of 2020 for Manpreet Singh, 32, had been joyous. He had taken a group of tourists to Thailand and Vietnam in January and his travel company, Four Seasons Holiday Planner, was doing well. Ever since COVID-19 made headlines in February, however, Singh has had to cancel 50 tours. “I know people in the sector who can’t sleep at night, but I don’t want to go on a downward spiral,” he says. A firm advocate of mental fitness, Singh is now using his spare hours to focus on his physical health too. He is using heavy pickle jars for tricep curls, gas cylinders for weighted squats and chairs for push-ups. “The glass will only be half empty when you want it to…

1 DAILY YOGA Since most people are confined to their homes, fitness apps to maintain physical activity levels are now a necessity. This one is great for beginners as it provides guided classes for users to learn the basics of yoga and meditation. 2 ANY.DO This app comes in handy for making/ maintaining to-do lists. It allows users to set reminders, organising them into lists by due dates. The app also has a huge list of prompts, including to make calls, send e-mails, buy supplies, meet people, pay bills, etc. Also has a ‘plan my day’ feature. 3 GOQII Aside from offering tips on how to stay fit and eat healthy, the app has a ‘contacttracking’ feature that allows users to maintain a database of people one has physically interacted…

1 PLAYING IT SAFE Fashion designer Rahul Mishra and his wife Divya’s key priority is to keep their four-year-old daughter Aarna safe and engaged while indoors. “We’re trying to make her time at home productive, educational and entertaining,” says Rahul. They paint, clean the home and do gardening together. “She even helps with the cooking, getting a bowl of vegetables to chop with her toy knife and helping knead the dough for chapatis.” And when her father is doing yoga, Aarna is by his side; when he sketches, his girl has a pencil in her hand too. “We also engage her in simple physical activities,” says the designer. Sometimes, they just dance or play ‘catch me if you can’ in the living room. 2 LEARNING TO BOND The lockdown…

1 ‘Make a meal plan for the week’ RUSHINA MUNSHAW GHILDIYAL Food consultant and blogger, Mumbai We have made it a rule to have two home-cooked meals every day in our house. And one, a simple dal-chawal-sabzi combination. I have seen a lot of people cooking rich, oily food online, but it is not sustainable in the long run, nor healthy when you are just sitting indoors. LOCKDOWN TIP With veggies in short supply, cook those that spoil first. Leafy greens on Day 1, beans and ladies’ finger (Day 2), cauliflower or cabbage (Day 3). Potatoes and onions keep the longest. 2 ‘Invest in onion powder or tomato puree’ DEEPTI KOCHHAR Food blogger, Delhi Many Indian recipes revolve around onions and tomatoes. But if supply is limited, then tomato…

For 95-year-old Maya Dasgupta in Kolkata, the one welcome aspect of the lockdown to fight COVID-19 is that she gets to spend quality time with her extended family. She hears peals of laughter and snatches of conversations through the day and even if she is confined to her room, attended to by one family member at a time, she is happy. However, she does realise that other elderly people, lacking the kind of support she enjoys, are not faring quite as well. Those above the age of 60 are most at risk of dying from COVID-19 and for many, the prospect of self-isolation is daunting. In his televised address to the nation on March 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown, which will cut off many elderly people…

Download the Netflix Party chrome extension and enjoy a movie together with your friends on the Netflix app. You can even chat with them while watching the movie. Instagram’s new Co-Watching feature, introduced just this week, allows you to video-call friends and look at saved/liked/ recommended posts together. It’s the app that shot to fame amidst the outbreak. House-party has been downloaded over 2 mn times worldwide. Allows you to video-chat with friends while playing favourite games like Trivia or Heads Up!…

1 MY NEW EVERYDAY LIFE Surviving Corona, one show at a time RICHA CHADHA, actress For the first few days, I watched Contagion, the Netflix show Pandemic and TedX talks by people who saw the outbreak coming. Then I binge-watched 10 seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm because I wanted some comedy. Now I intend to watch a host of Oscar-nominated films which I missed out on when they released and also the Netflix show Delhi Crime. My publisher will kill me if I am caught only watching stuff on Netflix and Amazon Prime, so I will be using the time to finish transcribing interviews and researching for my book which features anecdotal essays. I also bought a whole bunch of books. Currently, I amreading Blueprint for Revolution, a nonfiction title…