My Life in a Pandemic - A Personal Memoir of 2020  (English, Paperback, Giridhar Pai)

In early 2020, few Indians watching the COVID-19 pandemic unfold globally may have thought about it spreading across India. As the COVID-19 cases started rising, the Indian government declared a 3-week lockdown in March 2020 and followed it up with four more over the next six months. India had the most stringent lockdown globally for most of 2020 and this book looks closely at the lives of Indians during that year. In 2020, video calling apps enabled people to interact professionally and personally and became the biggest saviors. Shopping became an expedition and exercising an adventure as the Indian lockdown did not allow most outdoor activities. The author heard the world’s loudest insect in his community when the lockdown stopped all activity. This book documents many such wondrous natural phenomena that the author observed when nature was in free flow in absence of human interference. The author’s kaleidoscopic coverage paints a fascinating picture of his life in a pandemic year. In a year that saw postponement of the Olympics by a year, a race was on to develop a COVID-19 vaccine with more than 100 vaccine candidates in line for use in 2021. My Life in a Pandemic is a great chronicle of the 21st century’s first pandemic that dramatically reshaped human history.