The patient on the ventilator, in a crowded government hospital ICU in Chennai, heard the sounds of fireworks going off outside, “Looks like there’s a cause for celebrations!” he muttered to himself, just as he heard a stir in the bed next to him, where a Covid-19 patient like himself…


Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.