It’s another week of all of us being at home. BB’s school had a few positive cases so this week, he had to go back to school to get a swab test done. Thankfully, the test came out negative and we all heaved a sigh of relief.

Classes will be online for the rest of the month and for BB, practicals and lab have been suspended. If there were no cases in his school, he would have to go to school for lab, which has now been deferred at least until the end of this month.

Seth Godin says that optimism is the most important trait in a person because first it allows us to evolve and then it gives us hope which is essential for us as humans, because hope is what pushes us to take action and it is hope that gives us a reason to push ahead with our goals, about the possibility for the future. This is a lovely message and till now, one of my favourite quotes.

Singapore’s covid cases are not lessening and this time around, there are many cases involving young children, many primary school students. This is scary as many are also infected with the strain from India. India on the other hand, is still not showing signs of slowing down and is in fact struggling with a black fungus epidemic. Mucormycosis or Black Fungus is a nasty and rare fungal infection which affecting some coronavirus patients. The disease is caused by the many fungi that belong to the fungal family Mucorales which are usually found in the environment, in soil, for example, and are often associated with decaying organic material such as fruit and vegetables. The member of this family most often responsible for infections in humans is called Rhizopus oryzae. In India though, another family member called Apophysomyces, found in tropical and subtropical climates, is also common. Mucormycosis can manifest in the lungs, but the nose and sinuses are the most common site of mucormycosis infection. From there it can spread to the eyes, potentially causing blindness, or the brain, causing headaches or seizures.

Singapore has also increased the time period between the vaccine doses to 6 to 8 weeks so that more people can be vaccinated. I am hoping that BB & GG’s turn comes as soon as possible.

That’s all from us this week. As I always say each week, stay safe people and please stay masked and with a mask with double protection if possible.

The situation in Singapore has become quite bad with more local cases being reported daily for almost two weeks now. And the variants now associated with India, B6171 and 16172 has also landed in Singapore and this is very concerning because this variant is supposed to have a higher attack rate, are more infectious and create larger clusters. Because of this, Singapore has been put into a sort of lockdown without actually using the word. We’re all now mostly at home and don’t go out unless absolutely necessary. On Friday, when the new measures were announced, supermarkets saw panic buying, a repeat from last year when the Circuit Breaker was announced. This inspite of assurances from the supermarkets that they had sufficient supplies. GG has this week as home based learning which was announced a couple of weeks earlier, but BB was telling me that he was told by his lecturer that they may get into full home based learning very soon.

India has confirmed almost 24.5 million cases is reporting 300,000 to 400,000 cases daily. This is a marked contrast to the US, which though has reported more than 33.5 million cases is seeing a lower number of cases daily. This is because of the increased vaccination rate in the US compared to India. There does not seem to be any end in sight and everyone is having COVID fatigue and just want this to end. Let’s all pray for all of us so we can weather this crisis too.

Today’s positivity quote comes from Albert Einstein who says that life is like a bicycle and one has to keep moving to stay in balance. Life is never static and is constantly moving and so to stay in balance throughout life, one my keep moving as the minute one stops, we will lose our balance and fall down.

That’s all from me this week, stay safe folks and don’t go out unless it is absolutely necessary.

I got vaccinated with the second dose this week and I am happy that both S and I are relatively safe. I need to wait for two weeks to be safer. During this dose, I did not feel any pain immediately after the vaccine was injected and during the rest of the day. I did feel a mild headache in one side threatening to come, but I headed it off with a Panadol and some rest. That night, I started feeling sore in the arm where the vaccine was injected and also another round of a headache, which I again treated with a Panadol. The soreness persisted the next day and today I am perfectly fine. Again this is my experience which would be completely different from others.

India’s misery continues to increase and though my parents are fully vaccinated, I still worry for them. No vaccine as yet is 100% effective against COVID and its variants. But while on one hand, you have India struggling, on the other hand, there are still pockets where weddings are happening, where crowds are gathering and where social distancing and masking are just words, something they know they should do, but don’t actually do. So this is very troubling and until and unless this is taken care of and people start becoming more civic minded, I don’t really see a huge downward trend in cases happening in India.

BB & GG are settling in their second year and are getting busy with school. Nothing much to update here.

Today’s quote is about goal setting. According to Zig Ziglar, it’s the process that one undertakes to achieve their goals that is more important that the goal itself. What we become while we achieve our goals is more important. This is more that just as steel becomes stronger while being forged, when we go about achieveing our goals, the universe forges us and come out stronger and a better version of ourselves.

That’s all from me this week. Stay safe people and get your vaccines as soon as you become eligible.

It’s the end of another month and May is now upon us. But the promise of summer is not a good one in many parts of the world, especially India. Yesterday, India posted a world record of new cases posted in a 24 hour period, 400,000 new cases, the first country to do so in the pandemic. India’s total cases is now 19.1 million with 211,853 deaths. But experts feel that the cases are underreported and the actual cases and deaths are five to ten times more. The situation is very grim and I read reports of people suffering because of lack of hospital beds, medicines and oxygen. This is very distressing to people with loved ones there.

I have seen and heard of people in Singapore who have lost close loved ones, mothers, fathers, siblings and other relatives and the worst part is that they can’t go down and see them one last time. And to be honest, this fear keeps me awake at night. My parents live alone and with me here in Singapore and my sister in the States, we are worlds apart. I always took solace in the fact that I am just a five hour flight away, but now because flights from and to India from many countries being banned, if a situation arises where my parents need us, but we are unable to travel is my worst nightmare. Vaccinations are not available, even though vaccinations have been opened up for those between 18 and 45 now. Vaccination centres in many states have closed temporarily. I am so thankful my parents finished their second dose of the vaccine last week. Please pray for India. And if you can afford to, please donate what you can to any organisation which is funding efforts to help the country.

In my walking journey to Mumbai, I have now reached Thailand and have walked about 70 km inside the country and am about 22 km north of Hat Yai in Thailand’s Songkhla province. Since the beginning of the year, I have walked about 900 km. This month, reading went for a toss and though I am still ahead of my goal, I need to start reading more. So that’s my goal for the month, to read more.

This week’s quote is about an attitude of gratitude. Once we start listing what we are grateful for, we start to realise how fortunate we are. So start listing things you are grateful for and then slowly life will become that much calmer and our sense of discontent will dissipate.

That’s all for this week folks! Stay safe and stay masked.

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.