GG & BB finished their first week of school and GG is already stressed! BB on the other hand is more chill, but I am happy that this semester, he is taking more responsibility and has been coming home and revising his work and doing some pre-reading for the next lecture. I am hoping this is not a flash in the pan and he will be consistent throughout the semester.

Today’s quote is about persistence and resilience. It’s not really attributed to anyone but what it means is that everytime we fall down, we need to get up, dust ourselves off and go on. At some point, we will stop falling down. A rejection is not the end of the world, but in many cases, it is a redirection from the universe to something else.

India is facing a health crisis today with the new wave of COVID-19 cases. The past few days, I have been reading and watching news about what is happening in the ground and it is distressing to say the least. Hospitals are out of space and sick people are being moved around from hospital to hospital and being turned away from each because they can’t admit them. People are dying on the streets, in front of hospitals and on the way to someplace which can admit them in ambulences and their family and loved ones just watch helplessly and do nothing! Life giving oxygen is also not available in many cities and the little that is available is snapped up in a jiffy and there are deaths reported due to a lack of oxygen. Many of these deaths were preventable only if treatment and oxygen had been given on time. There is a sharp rise in daily cases and for multiple days this week, India’s daily cases have breached new highs each day.

Even Singapore is seeing an increase in new cases, though now all short-term visitors from India have been banned and those with a travel history to India in the last fourteen days have an increased quarantine period from 14 to 21 days.

In all this, personally for me, I am happy that none of my extended family and friends have been affected and I pray it stays this way till things are back to normal. My parents got their second dose of the vaccine last week. They are still being cautious though and don’t venture outside unless its absolutely necessary and that’s a good thing as given their age, medical history and the current situation in the country, I fear the worst should they contract the virus.

Anyway, looks like 2021 will be a repeat of 2020 and so please stay safe, stay masked and get your vaccine doses as soon as possible.