-
101 Sahabiyat Stories and Dua by Good Word Books
A few years ago, The Hindu Tamil Newspaper published tiny stories from The Holy Quran, I found the stories interesting. Once the series ended, I bought the book “The Greatest Stories from the Quran” which was the source of the stories, the book was well made and printed on glossy paper – and I learned a bit about Islam from the book. Later, I bought another book, titled “101 Sahabiyat Stories and Dua” from the same publisher (Good Word) for Rs 345 (USD 4.5) Today, being the Eid festival, I thought it is befitting to read the book “101 Sahabiyat Stories and Dua”. This too was a hardbound one with…
-
Got my third dose of COVID-19 vaccination
Two days ago, got my booster dose of Covaxin at the Apollo Medical Centre, T.Nagar, Chennai for INR 390. It was easy and thankfully, had no troublesome side effects. Though I had gotten (natural) infected with COVID19 and recovered during the January (third) wave, I wanted to get this done when there is little demand. I booked a slot in the Cowin portal. I was in and out of the clinic in ten minutes, including the five minutes post-injection recommended wait. In India, for those who are above 60 years of age, booster doses are available for free from Government centres. For those in the age bracket of 18 to…
-
A fast-growing district in India – Gachibowli, Hyderabad
Over the last 15 years, when Gachibowli (the hi-tech township near Hyderabad) was getting developed, I had visited a few times, but the pace of development activity I saw happening when I visited last week felt unprecedented. Every housing community seemed to have 1000s of apartments, each building was having over 20 to 30 floors. The basement parking in one of the apartment complexes I visited was ten times bigger than the largest I had seen in Chennai (which would be the Phoenix Mall, Velachery). The roads were wide and well-laid. It was mostly American and German cars on the roads. Logos of every well-known American, European and a few…
-
My diary of COVID-19 days
I wish the 517 Pages, 166 thousand words I have written were for a novel, but they are not. Two years back, a few days after India was lockdown, I started writing – what can be called as – personal notes. It started as an emotional support tool for myself, daily COVID-19 numbers in Chennai, then expanded to be a health record & (contact) traceability record of who I met during the day and a bit of news and later matured into a diary. Today I saved the file for a final time, renamed it to “Notes on March 2020 to March 2022-COVID Years” and stashed it away. My own…
-
I recovered from COVID-19
Recovered from COVID-19 After dodging the virus for the last two years, I got infected last week. A wave of cold/cough/fever was circulating in our house from the week of Pongal – first my son, then mom and then my wife. I should’ve picked it from one of them, even though my son and mom on the first symptom were isolated in their individual rooms. Last Monday (17th Jan 2022) I was feeling dryness in my throat, then on Wednesday, I got a fever, which rose to 102.8″ F in the next two days. I did myself a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) which showed positive within the first minute, confirming…
