Going Viral
By Kai Friese, Managing Editor
Calamities are supposed to have their funny sides but the dull apocalypse of our time has gone on for so long now, it is hard to see any humour in it. Unless you find heavy, sententious, irony funny. In which case, sure: it’s Alanis Morissette humming through your quarantine like a big black fly. I am literally the guy who was afraid to fly—and got Covid the day after returning from my first post-pandemic aeroplane trip. Also, the day after I had registered for my first vaccine. Sure it’s meaningless—but so ironic, don’t you think?
Also meaningless: the whole thing. Other than the fear of having infected others—the off-colour joke was that I was the ‘Lutyens’ Tablighi’—it was an underwhelming illness. I know, I know! I was lucky and even while my infection was running its dreary course, three of my friends were hospitalised.
The other unfunny joke was that this was Covid’s ‘celebrity wave’, which, given Sachin Tendulkar, Alia Bhatt, Farooq Abdullah and who knows who, lent resonance to the popular rumour that this was really a disease of the rich—more ironic comeuppance. In fact, I was the target of one biting subaltern rebuke, from a woman who had served me dinner at a friend’s house the day before I took ill. She refused to come to work after hearing I had tested positive and complained that I had done a very bad thing by getting tested! The test only draws out the disease, she said, while informing my friend that she had suffered many symptoms herself over the past few months, but had kept Covid at bay by avoiding any medical test!
Bu hikaye India Today dergisinin April 26, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye India Today dergisinin April 26, 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Congress 'EQ' Vs BJP ‘IQ'
Team Modi Is Riding On Its Assembly Poll Momentum, But The Congress's Clever Candidate Mix May Prevent A Washout
The Macallan M 2023 debuts in India
Standing as a pinnacle of exclusivity, The Macallan M 2023 graces the shores of India with limited 10 handpicked bottles for whisky aficionados
Give it up for the science bros
They've got brains, brawn and billions in the bank. A new breed of wellness guru is doing for men what Gwyneth Paltrow did for women.
LIVING BY THE RULES
Chetan Bhagat returns to non-fiction with his new book-11 Rules for Life
The Mysterious City
Anuradha Kumar's The Kidnapping of Mark Twain paints an intriguing portrait of Bombay around the time of the American writer's visit
GOWDA KNOWS
Hot Stage, the third book in Anita Nair's Inspector Gowda mystery series, is here
WITH OUR OWN DESI SLEUTHS
Indian detective fiction gets its due in this massive, two-volume compilation from Hachette
PRIVATE PARADISE
Your home may well be your haven, but here are easy ways to make it your very own spa-dom.
Subversive IN SUBURBIA
A MONTH-LONG SHOW AT ART AND CHARLIE, MUMBAI, SHOWCASING THE WORKS OF POONAM JAIN AND YOGESH BARVE POSES SEVERAL QUESTIONS TO THE VIEWER
THE HOME THAT WAS
A soon-to-launch gallery at the Partition Museum in Delhi will showcase artefacts capturing 'The Lost Homeland of Sindh'