Of men and swine!

This is a blog from almost a danger zone or ground zero for the swine flu epidemic India(so consider being written under duress!). As dramatic as that may sound, it’s the honest to goodness truth. In Pune, where daily deaths due to swine flu are the headlines, it has indeed caused a great consternation to all those living here. Due to disregard for regulations, government indifference, racketeering and plain robbery, the spread of swine flu is fast becoming unchecked and it is only a matter of time before it spirals out of control. With the hospital workers themselves getting infected while treating the patients, it remains to be seen, how soon it will be before civil unrest breaks out. Strong parallels are being drawn between the situation here and Mexico about three months ago when it had to go on a war footing to stamp out swine flu and the return to normalcy is still taking place. With the places of public gathering shut down, malls, theaters, and schools closed for a week and to be continued based on the situation is indeed dire. With most of the cases arising from the waiting lines in hospitals, it does seem like a Catch-22 situation, or rather the choice of Odysseus, between Scylla and Charybdis. However, I am completely fine so far, and I hope that this continues until the situation is under control.
The faults in our political system are being exposed in this crisis, as the blame game has already begun. They should realize that this is a crisis not of their own direct doing but one that has been in the making for many years now by the entire world, as research into viral diseases has decreased over the last decade as consumer drugs rose in both productions as well as sales. Dealing with the situation successfully now should be of utmost concern here. I think the Health Minister Azad was very forthright about this and his conclusions that the worst is yet to come and that we should be prepared for it a valid point.
Anyways, enough gloomy predictions and doom, I think the four Horsemen can wait a little longer before they claim the world. In the midst of all this, I find myself at office working much shorter hours than before (which is a good thing!), and just indulging myself writing this blog as well. Over the last couple of months, it had been a different life, as I had seen untold hours I was promised I would never see by my family when I studied to get into an IIT. I mean all this was exactly what I wanted to avoid when I studied.
Also, its been a year since I joined PwC, one long year filled with ups and downs, success and failure, problems and solutions. If I had to quote Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season o Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…” It was mostly a good year, filled with interesting people, and definitely a large change from my earlier life of being a student (although I am working towards being a student again!).