Nature's Ways

 Nature has announced the onset of NE Monsoon with a bang. Chennai (particularly Mandaveli and its neighbourhood) experienced blinding lightnings and deafening thunders early this morning . They were so threatening that one could be forgiven for thinking that the end of the world was at hand.

Luckily (am I using the right word?), the apocalypse has not happened and I continue to live. The dry monsoon as the NE Monsoon is called, has arrived imperially. What can we predict about its course this year? Weathermen console us that the delayed onset (the monsoon is a week late this year) does not mean that the rains will be scanty. It is strange that we focus only on the possibility of a weak monsoon at the start of the season. At this time, we do not realise that a very strong monsoon might cause greater havoc than a failed monsoon.

The beginning of monsoon is usually portrayed as a harbinger of good tidings in Bollywood. In real life, it creates apprehensions. This time, the possible cataclysm is twofold. One natural adversity can make us squirm in paranoia. The combination of an unpredictable monsoon and the novel coronavirus is sending shivers down our spine.

We experience monsoons periodically and yet we have been unable to fully fathom their behaviour. It is no wonder that we know little about SARS-CoV-2 which we are facing for the first time and hope does not become a regular visitor like the monsoon. Europe is now battered by a repeat wave of the virus. Belgium and the Czech Republic are the worst affected as of now. 

Some epidemiologists have thrown in the towel reasoning that the virus is behaving 'arbitrarily' and therefore any prognosis is out of place. Why should our inability to understand the virus make its natural behaviour arbitrary? If all that we do not comprehend is to be dismissed as arbitrary, most of the universe is arbitrary. Our ignorance must not be interpreted as nature's arbitrariness.

COVID-19 travails

 The world has been literally on edge ever since the novel coronavirus-SARS-CoV-2 emerged from China. The panic started in December,2019 and the end is nowhere in sight. With every new development, we are becoming more perplexed. Recently it was reported that this virus can stay on many surfaces including stainless steel, glass and paper currency for as long as 28 days.

No one can remain unconcerned about the virus. It is recommended by health authorities that those with symptoms like cold, cough, fever, diarrhoea, breathlessness and fatigue need to get tested for COVID-19. It is commonly known that it can also be asymptomatic. So, whether one has symptoms or not, testing is indicated. This is only the start of a series of dilemmas.

If one decides to get tested, one needs to be wise to the fact that many test results are false-positive and a few false-negative. If COVID-19 is confirmed by a test that is anyway unreliable, the next stage in the puzzle revolves around quarantine. The purpose of isolation is to protect others from infection. This is another quandary because the virus is even more contagious before onset of symptoms. Thus, by the time one is quarantined, the virus has already performed its dharmic duty of invading other hosts.

What medicine to take? It is admitted that there is no medicine and the virus itself has to decide when to leave a host. Yet, medical aggressiveness and patient's anxiety result in use of drugs. Hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial and anti-autoimmune disorder drug, dexamethasone, a steroid used for asthma, cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, azithromycin, convalescent plasma and vitamin D are used depending on the situation in a hit or miss fashion. Depending on one's luck, the patient may get cured or the condition may aggravate.

Recovery will be signalled by a few negative results from further tests. The reliability of these tests is again subject to question.

No disease has flummoxed patients, doctors, epidemiologists and pharma companies alike like COVID-19. (Some pharma companies are , however, making money while the sun shines and the disease remains enigmatic by proferring false claims on efficacy of their drugs.)  In sum, combined absence of vaccine, fool-proof test and medicine makes COVID-19 a horrific gift from China for which the world is pathetically unable to make the donor accountable.

Life is a rat race!

 Life is a rat race. Period. However, we acknowledge it, if at all, only when life is almost over. Little do we realise that even if we win the rat race, we remain as rats.

There are some differences between us and rats. Rats get caught only in a rat trap. But we are caught in multiple types of traps. Once trapped, rats try to get out of the trap. When we are ensnared by 'pleasures', we try to get deeper into them. It becomes a race to the bottom for us. Who are more intelligent, rats or us?

Rats do not gnaw at its food, say nuts, when they find that humans are around and watching. They have the fear of being caught. Human beings do not have this fear. Despite knowing that the Almighty keeps an unfailing eye constantly on us, we keep committing deliberate mistakes as if we will never be caught. Rats must be laughing at us!

IDFC First Bank

 Mr. V.Vaidyanathan is the CEO and MD of IDFC First Bank. The bank has advised the stock exchange as follows on Sept 28th.. It does not say that VV is the MD of the bank. Does the bank think that anyone reading the announcement should know who he is? (Of course, he has done well in donating shares to his teacher.)

" Dear Sir / Madam, Pursuant to Regulation 30 of the SEBI Listing Regulations read with Regulation 7(2) and 6(2) of the SEBI Insider Trading Regulations, we wish to inform you that Mr. V. Vaidyanathan has transferred 1,00,000 fully paid-up equity shares of IDFC FIRST Bank Limited held by him in his personal capacity to his former school teacher, Mr. Gurdial Saroop Saini, as a gift, without any consideration as a token of gratitude for his teacher’s help to him at an earlier stage in his life. It is clarified by Mr. Vaidyanathan that Mr. Saini is not a related party under Companies Act, and that the recipient will pay taxes as per applicable tax laws. Kindly take the above on record and acknowledge receipt of the same. Thanking you, Yours Faithfully, For IDFC FIRST Bank Limited Satish Gaikwad Head – Legal & Company Secret"

Here is another interesting announcement:

"IDFC First Bank Limited has received an intimation vide letter dated September 4, 2020, from Dr Rajiv B Lall wherein he has tendered his resignation as part-time non-executive chairman from the board of the bank with immediate effect citing that he has been dealing with his prolonged personal health issues for a while now," the bank said in a regulatory filing.

Dealing with prolonged health issue for a while?