Breaking The Walls Of The Echo Chamber

Image credits: pixabay.com  With the outbreak of the novel coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown in India, tensions have been running high, particularly among the old age community. Early studies and tests have confirmed that while the virus can affect young and middle-aged people, most severe cases are seen among people over the age of 60, with fatal results seen in those aged 80 and above. One must also take into account pre-existing medical conditions that people develop due to lack of immunity as they grow older. This lack of immunity makes them susceptible to viruses and infections, especially ones like the COVID-19 that don’t have a vaccine or a known cure yet. Suffering from conditions commonly linked to old age like diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and respiratory disorders only increase the risk of deaths in older populations. Surely, this knowledge has had an impact on people.  “I get very anxious sometimes, and I worry about when will this get over, how this ...

“ Middle-class individuals live in a bubble unaware of the struggles of real India” - as much as someone belonging to this section of the population might want to disagree, I believe that this is true. And I believe this solely because the issues faced by lower-income families and people living in generational poverty are more than just the problem of finance. The issues lie in not having even minimal security, healthcare, education or opportunities. And we are in a bubble not because we aren’t aware of the issues, it’s because we aren’t aware of their extent. It is because we are largely preoccupied with our worries and struggles that we may find ourselves in this bubble of self-preservation and we may not even be aware of it.  Debating about or questioning the term 'real India' and wondering whether we aren’t a part of it is going to get us nowhere because that is all we will remain doing: debating. How many of us in class today would have had to constantly worry about not be...

Image by  Steve Buissinne  from  Pixabay                     “Q magazine to fold after 34 years” This wasn’t what I had expected to read on The Guardian’s webpage first thing in the morning. Now, I am not an avid reader of this magazine and generally, I couldn’t have cared less, however, this incident only solidified the claim that this pandemic has made the survival of print industry on the market hellish, forcing many publication houses, especially magazines, to shut shop. Thus began my pondering.  Magazines have been seeing a decline in publication and sales. This is because of several reasons, one of which could possibly be the larger readership for newspapers. Newspapers have adapted to look and function like magazines, providing flashy entertainment news or sports updates like magazines in their supplements and special weekend editions, along with their usual 18 to 24-page copies. What is published in five magaz...