ISSUE DATE: May 17, 2021
UPDATED: May 7, 2021 21:47 IST
Bodies are lined up for the final rites before being consigned to the flames at the Hari Nagar crematorium in Delhi on May 2; Photo by Yasir Iqbal
Massed pyres and serpentine queues of shrouded bodies. Gasping, terrified men and women pleading to be accepted as patients. The broken and bereaved mourning their dead. In New Delhi today, as in any Indian metro, the roads are silent, the bazaars are shuttered. But approach any hospital and you’ll rediscover the familiar clamour of the Indian street, rising to a crescendo in the once hushed ICUs—now rent with the shouts and moans of the desperate and the dying. Of course most of us are hunkered in our homes, carpeing our diems and visiting such scenes through our screens when we’re not fielding calls and text messages from family and friends, or friends of friends, pleading for a hospital bed, an oxygen cylinder, Remdesivir, more oxygen. Expressing our sympathies on Facebook and WhatsApp.