ChinmayC Blog

When the extremely severe cyclonic storm Amphan hit Kolkata and adjoining districts of West Bengal in the evening of 20 th May, 2020, with a speed ranging from 110 to 133 km per hour the damage could very well be anticipated. West Bengal is not new to cyclones originating in the Bay of Bengal, in fact, three cyclones namely ‘Fani’, ‘Bulbul’ and ‘Amphan’ swept over the state within a span of one year only—from May 2019 to May 2020. However, the force and speed of Amphan was unprecedented in the state as some point out that the areas had not seen such a severe cyclone in 283 years. By late night that fateful day, closeted in the control room of her secretariat in Howrah, Chief Minister Mamata Bannerji, distressed and sad, said while briefing the media online that a few districts of her state and Kolkata were totally destroyed and it would take days to assess the damage apart from the loss of lives. She desperately hoped that the central government would come in with some help as her st...

They are safe at home—he, his wife and their two boys. So far, that is to say. Their house is in a red zone—declared by the government due to the spread of the novel Coronavirus or COVID-19. For nearly two months now they have continued to stay at home, at times working from home and he has been very strict lately, not allowing his young sons to go out at any cost. He has heard that young people, even if infected, can get on well without even showing symptoms and recover quite easily, but the problem is the possibility of their infecting elderly persons who are prone to having serious complications if infected. Naturally so then, he thinks, why grandsons are separated physically from grandparents. Their rations come mostly from online orders. At times, he has to go out to the fruit or vegetable vendors for the odd and fresh requirement.     Things amuse him; although he had never seen such unprecedented times or heard about in his lifetime, and that humankind is going through...

Photo: english.sakshi.com Tragically ironical that in the time the ‘StayHome’ mission people of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh should find themselves forced to run out of their homes in the early hours today terror- struck. A polystyrene gas plant of the LG Polymers near Visakhapatnam started leaking gas in the early hours and the deadly gas started entering into the homes of more than 1000 people of five villages in a 3km radius of the chemical plant. Shocked inhabitants ran out of their homes into the streets breathless and with a burning sensation. Several of them fainted or lost consciousness and fell in the streets while many others ran, sat down or stood there helplessly or loitered around in a daze. However, as against the StayHome irony, at least COVID preparedness of the district helped give immediate relief to the affected with ambulances, oxygen cylinders and ventilators kept in readiness. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was also called in. Bringing back memories o...