A week before the announcement of the Janata [public] Curfew slated for March 22, 2020, I spoke with a 43-year-old close relative in her village in Leh, Ladakh, by phone from Delhi. Around that time, the news of rising infections from the novel coronavirus coming in from China, Italy and Iran, were ominous. Ladakh had been reporting positive cases since

In eastern and African cultures, the name we are given at birth means a lot. In our names, the hopes, dreams and aspirations of our parents are borne. There are parental hopes for the child to fulfil the meaning of their names, with the family name bearing the legacy of ancestry. Superstition kicks in too, a popular 70s pop group