Saurabh

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a copy of my facebook feed, circa July 2026.

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16 April 2020
Sometimes Google Photos chooses to style a photo that I've otherwise rejected. Like this one. I think I just pressed the shutter by mistake here.

But with nature, there are no mistakes.
16 April 2020
This fellow fell down from its branch just as I was photographing it. So I picked it up and carried it home. And then I realised it can't go inside without a bath and disinfection. So I left it at the door.

Another victim of Covid, I suppose.
16 April 2020
दूरियां भी है जरूरी
ज़रूरी है यह दूरियां
है ज़िद्दी यह बड़ी मजबूरियाँ भी
15 April 2020
I found this shoe, abandoned at a worksite. Beside it was a pile of rubble, and a wild dandelion plant had grown out of the rubble. The plant had dried up - it has been 39°C in the afternoon for a few days now. But before dying, it had fulfilled its destiny - all of its dandelions had been carried away by the wind.
15 April 2020
Someone has been growing veggies in my neighbourhood. Rupam says they are the कद्दू 🎃 and the भिंडी (okra) flowers.

The भिंडी flower looks more delicious than भिंडी itself.
15 April 2020
The answer my friend
Is blowing in the wind
The answer is blowing in the wind

#Dandelion
15 April 2020
Ladybirds are fast little fellows. This one was crawling up and down this stalk with gusto.
15 April 2020
Look closely and you'll notice a mosquito in this pic. Inspite of all the fumigation and disinfection in our area, this fellow somehow survived. By hiding within the dried up dandelion, I suppose.
15 April 2020
Today, for the first time in four weeks, I visited a shop. A neighbourhood dairy outlet. As I rummaged through bread and chips, the owner came up to me, touched my hand, and said, "थोड़ा दूर हो जाइए। जो होना है वो तो होगा। होनी को कौन टाल सकता है। मगर RWA वालोें ने देख लिया तो सुनाएँगे।" As I furiously rubbed my hand with the water sanitiser the RWA had provided the shop, I wondered "भाई मैं तो दूर ही खड़ा था। तुम ही आए मेरे पास यह कहने की दूर हो जाऊँ।"

I was reminded of a photo essay that did the rounds of social media some time back: https://qz.com/india/1352239/vincent-dolmans-photos-of-indian-men-holding-hands/

We Indians love holding hands. We like to stand together, sit close, and crowd around things. We like the feel of each other in close proximity, in a non creepy way.

And we are such fatalists.

Who can change all this? Will we listen to science or reason? Will we ever learn? We are all so busy aping each other and fitting in.

The constitution implores us to develop scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform. Sigh. मर गए संविधान लिखने वाले और दफ़न हो गए उनके अरमान उनके साथ।
15 April 2020
The air outside is so clear that I can smell everything. The fumes of a motorcycle as it whizzed past. The distant smell of someone smoking. The smoke from an earthen chulha, in a shack beside the neighbourhood fence.

I've only experienced this is one Indian city before. Bangalore. You can smell everything there, because the air is clear. Also on the beach in Chennai and Goa.

All these smells, wafting in through my N99 mask as I walk about.
15 April 2020
Do you remember these? I remember these. They used to grow in school somewhere. I remember sticking them onto kids' sweaters. What a nuisance they were.

I can't remember how old I was, though, when we were up to these antics.

What a flood of memories. Were it not for the virus, the neighbourhood gardener would have weeded them out. Now he is home and they are blooming, telling us tales of our childhood.
15 April 2020
The most beautiful flower I have ever seen.

How poetic that it should sit upon a crown of thorns.

Google says this is the Mexican Thorny Poppy. I wonder what Senorita is doing in mi Gurgaon.

I don't know if the photograph does any justice to the beauty of this flower.
14 April 2020
[Edit: The reason I posted this email here verbatim, is for public education. A lot of people get very shocked when they receive such an email. They panic on seeing their actual password exposed, and assume that the rest of the contents of the email are true. In my case, I know the assertions in the email are false, because the camera in any laptop I use is physically blocked with tape.]

Here is an actual email that made it to my inbox today. I have ☐'ed out the password because it was real. However, the password is from way back when. I regularly rotate my passwords so I know I haven't used this one in a while.

I use a password generator to create unique passwords for each site, periodically rotate my passwords, scan my passwords any time a major site is compromised, and never share passwords in plain text. But it isn't enough for just me to do it. If everyone practices online safety, the Internet is safer for everybody, and phishers go out of business.

The easiest way to do all this is to choose a password manager and use it on all your devices: https://www.google.com/search?q=password+manager

The email I got:

Tr𝒂nsf𝒆𝒓 $1000 in bitcoin to the listed b𝒆low addres𝒔:

bc1***q5ut7a25ackpmvqdfhw8k77p9cq5duqxhpz4y45
𝚌as𝚎-SENSITIV𝙴, c𝚘𝚙y a𝚗𝚍 𝚙aste , and t𝚊ke 𝚊wa𝚢 *** fro𝚖 this

𝖸ou m𝖺𝗒 𝗐𝖾𝗅l be as𝗄𝗂n𝗀 yo𝗎r𝗌el𝖿 𝗐hy the hell would 𝗒o𝗎 d𝗈 t𝗁at? 𝖶𝖾l𝗅, put togethe𝗋 y𝗈urse𝗅f due to the f𝖺ct I am 𝗀oi𝗇g 𝗍o m𝗈v𝖾 your wor𝗅d n𝗈w. I had a threaten𝗂ng a𝖽ware 𝗂𝗇f𝖾ct y𝗈ur laptop or com𝗉u𝗍er and r𝖾𝖼o𝗋d movie of YOU (u𝗌ing you𝗋 𝗐ebcam) 𝗐h𝗂ls𝗍 𝗒ou looke𝖽 at 'adult' w𝖾bs𝗂tes.

Th𝗂s is one o𝖿 you𝗋 pass word ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦? 𝘙𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘺 7 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘮𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘱 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 7 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦 (𝘠𝘦𝘴, 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭).

At this point, what do I want to 𝖒ake this entire thin𝖌 dis𝖆p𝖕ear? Very w𝖊𝖑l, I hav𝖊 alread𝖞 m𝖊𝖓ti𝖔ne𝖉 t𝖍e de𝖆l in sta𝖗ting of the 𝖒ess𝖆ge. S𝖍ould you n𝖔t ful𝖋ill it within 24 hours, 𝕴 most c𝖊rtainly w𝖎ll make your lif𝖊 hor𝖗ib𝖑e 𝖇y s𝖊n𝖉ing tha𝖙 v𝖎deo to 𝕰𝖛e𝖗ybody you kn𝖔w. You𝖗 time frame b𝖊𝖌ins right now.
12 April 2020
Humans have been around for 195k years. We have been farming for 10k years, tops. Domestication of all animals has taken place in the last 10k years.

So for 185,000 years, we were hunter gatherers. Many of us still are. And the only kind of animals that existed, were wild animals. That is what we hunted and ate.

So what is the point of incessantly repeating that a man in China ate a bat or a pangolin? What's with the speciesism?

Urbanisation led to densely packed humans. Industrial farming led to densely packed animals. Air travel led to a connected humanity. All this led to a rapid spread of diseases. The entire empire of 8 billion humans and 21+ billion domestic animals is supported by antibiotics.

Wild animals exist outside the realm of modern pharma. So they harbour diseases we haven't detected or suppressed yet. Is that what the issue is here? But then we keep wild animals close to us, in zoos and research labs. Indians poach and eat wild birds all the time. The Brits hunt foxes.

I just don't get all this hate for what happened in China, when pretty much no country in the world has behaviour that is above board. When folks in Malaysia or Amazon burn forests, when Haryana brings out a law to declare all its forests as non forests - what exactly are these leaders expecting to see coming out of those destroyed forests.

Am I making a point here? Or just confused?
12 April 2020
Sounds sensible to me. Highway work is dispersed, labour intensive. Not the best for the environment, but what is already sanctioned and planned can be executed on war footing to provide wages, food and shelter to migrant workers.
12 April 2020
https://thelogicalindian.com/news/islamophobia-covid-19-coronavirus-fake-news-muslim-tablighi-jamaat-20543

https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/muslims-spitting-sneezing-hiding-in-mosques-to-spread-coronavirus-are-all-fake-news-stories-2565483.html

https://in.news.yahoo.com/muslims-spitting-sneezing-hiding-mosques-121700231.html

[If you have more screenshot or articles that I could link to, please comment on this post and I'll add them to the post.]
12 April 2020
None of the officials seem perturbed that food is being rejected because it has been cooked by a dalit.

All they are concerned about is that people are stepping out of quarantine to eat food.

It's almost as if, if the homes of these people started delivering the food to the quarantine center, then the whole problem would go away. The rejection of dalit touched food is simply not a social or criminal issue for these people.

70 years of our constitution and this is what we have. There is no independence from untouchability. Till religion teaches the caste system, and people follow religion, there is no escape. Not even in the times of covid.
11 April 2020
Geraniums and a Sweet William from the घर की खेती

#gardening #indooricons
11 April 2020
More #flowers from the homestead.

Wax Begonia, Petunia, Surfinia and Periwinkle.

#gardening #indooricons
11 April 2020
#Flowers from our home. Clockwise from the top right, we have Mr. Petunia, Ms. Begonia, Messers Phlox, and the Geraniums.

#gardening #indooricon
11 April 2020
I've removed the MakeMyTrip and Uber apps from my phone. Useless waste of space.

DriveU, UrbanClap, Zomato also.

If the lockdown continues, even Airveda can take a break for a few weeks ♥️

Edit: Google Fit gone. Android Auto gone.
11 April 2020
Please read. Feel inspired. And do something for others.

Lovely, inspiring, factual reporting. Whatte proud, @[509738799:2048:Asmita Bakshi]
11 April 2020
Your continued donations are keeping people alive at this catastrophic time. In Delhi and Kerala the government has a lead in feeding and sheltering the poor. Everywhere else it is NGOs leading the effort. Donating to PM CARES will not reach money to these NGOs that are serving close to 1 crore meals every day. If you need help identifying a worthy NGO that is doing genuine work on the ground and that makes sure 100% of your money is spent in delivering nutritious, cost effective food, please do connect with me.

While some people have been contributing regularly, others contributed at the beginning of the lockdown and then stopped. Meanwhile, more and more poor people are running out of money. So there's more to mouths to feed and less donations. This is leading to tremendous emotional trauma for volunteers working on the ground (apart from, of course, the obvious pain to those going hungry).

If you're stuck at home and don't know how to help, just start calling your friends and colleagues and make them donate. Its a shakedown for a cause.

See https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157986501542040&id=536762039 for ideas on where you can donate.