ON WOMEN"S DAY

Greetings to all the women on this day,

Set aside to fete half of the world,

Enjoy the adulation heaped today,

But pray tell, why is today so special?

You are fully capable of living,

Without the men who only get in your way,

But you may not find that interesting,

When they see you other women don't stand and gape!

What will you do without the men in your life,

Without the attention, flirting, and the like,

You do need someone to carry your bags,

While you go shopping and empty the aisles!

What will you do without them to give chase,

Trying to impress and put on a face,

While you pretend to ignore their existence,

They are needed to brighten your days!

On this day give thought to the  poor men,

Who form the hindrances in all your lives,

And be happy you were born a woman,

For it's much worse to be on the other side!

Jayesh grows to be sixty

He is still kicking ass,
Working harder than before,
Chasing that pot of gold,
At end of start-up rainbow!

Gets up in the mornings,
Rushes out of the door,
Has a lot of meetings,
Many more than before!

Runs fast during the day,
Zipping through the corridors,
Setting right all that he sees,
Leaving behind messy trails!

Runs himself through the day,
Makes others do the same,
Today on his birthday,
He will do six sprints!

He was never like this,
When we knew him before,
He was the most chill,
Refused to exert himself!

God knows what's the reason,
What's pumping him to run,
But he seems to be having fun,
And that is all that matters!

CHANGE

Time moves, whether we like it or not,
It changes, for better or for worse,
The baton passes, to the younglings,
And we are spectators, left behind...

The tides of change cannot be stemmed,
It devours all that is in its path,
You may rant, and you may rail,
But time moves, devouring all in its path!

Religious Fervour

Anti-vaxer

Vaccine hesitancy

Science deniers

Vaccine is like a religion. Those who point out obvious flaws, are labelled "x-religion- phobe".. how different is this?

Breathless anticipation, magic cure, huge queues to get the vaccine, rationing, desirability induced by limited availability... It is like in the mythologies Kubera decides to distribute his wealth, and people are rushing before it is too late

People with comorbidities ( a lovely term that has become popular of late) can "showcase" them to get priority for the vaccine... The language used makes it oh so desirable to have comorbidities.. those who don't have any must be suffering from a severe case of FOMO

What does common sense say?

All drugs are harmful ( chemical based allopathic drugs). Vaccines, more so. 

Drugs should only be taken when the benefits exceed the cost.

Germs are everywhere and there are trillions of them. We coexist with germs. Our body has evolved and is tuned to fight them.

To keep the body fighting fit, and the immunity high, should be the goal.

Fear, panic, negativity, and taking drugs including vaccines reduce the general immunity of the body, this exposing us to various diseases out there.

Covid is like any other flu, the fatality rate has not been higher , not now, and not at any point.

There is a concentrated media campaign which makes it seem deadlier than it is. 

 The holy grail of the pharma companies is to get healthy people to take drugs. Drugs for things which can only be cured by lifestyle changes. 

And the ultimate holy grail is to include new-born babies as well.

Let us not get carried away by the hype.

Let us pause and think. If society gives us the leeway to do so. In case of any religion, including vaccination, the climate is not conducive to those who question the prevailing wisdom or go against the prevailing zeitgeist, the mood of the times. 

In the Mumbai edition of TOI today, there is an article on Dharavi achieving herd immunity. 

Population, 1 million, in three square kilometres. Almost everyone has been exposed to the virus. Very very very few have died. The article of course does not report that. My guess is ( based on extrapolation of another report on this a couple of months back) that it is less than five hundred  deaths. Which is as much as any other ailment. Finally, people have to die of something.

The way to develop antibodies to any virus is to get the virus, or to get the vaccine. 

The conclusion should be obvious. At least to me they appear obvious.

The virus is not deadly. There are  news articles highlighting  cases with horrible outcomes, which distort the picture in our minds. If you highlight all road accident cases which result in being wheelchair bound for life, you will stop driving, but what is the probability?

Indians are more immune. In my view, this is due to the fact that we eat fresh food most of the time, and the fact that we are exposed to all kinds of viruses all the time. The latter makes slum dwellers more immune. It is also but common sense that wearing masks and isolating oneself is going to reduce your exposure to all kinds of viruses, and thus your overall immunity.

By definition, any allopathic drugs are harmful, vaccines more so. So vaccines are justified only for extreme ailments like small pox or polio. This point can be debated, as to where to draw the line, but it is definitely not wise to take vaccines for Flu annually. That will end up reducing your overall immunity. But that is exactly where we are heading.

All viruses mutate. The body is used to handling this over millions of years of evolution. But this same argument is being used to say that one needs to take annual covid shots, and, why am I not surprised, bundled with your annual flu shots.

So we will do that, and we are getting more and more into takeaways and processed foods, and soon we will lose our immunity. Then we will be scared of every floating germ out there, and wrap ourselves in bubbles.

While the people in slums will thrive!