Covaxin 1st dose for wife and me on 2021-04-10

Thank you, Narendra Modi ji 🙏  

My wife joins me in conveying my heartfelt 'pranam' to you. 

Ever since end March 2020, I was scared that I will breathe my last without the luxury of getting shielded from the Chinese virus. 
By the year end you proved me wrong. 
It was because of your leadership and initiative that not one, but two brands of vaccines were introduced in the Indian market. 
As a marketing professional, my next worry was how you and your team would handle the logistics of distribution and administering of the vaccines in a diverse country like India. Even a fortnight before the actual rollout happened, I was mighty scared that if the process of distribution was left to one bloodthirsty and diabolical LADY in West Bengal, I will not get it before the next 13 - 15 years, as per my calculations. 
On 25th February 2021, I heard J.P.Nadda ji announce in Science City, Kolkata that you have taken a decision to open up the vaccination process for all Indians above 60 yrs and also for those between 45 - 59 yrs but having specific co-morbidity issues w.e.f 1st March 2021. 
I could clearly see the light at the end of the tunnel. 
On 1st March 2021 itself, the day online registration started on cowin.gov.in, my wife and I registered ourselves using my smartphone in about 100 seconds only from start to end. 
I am still not 60. Fortunately, neither of us have any health co-morbidity issues. Nevertheless, I was sure that my wife and I will become eligible for the 1st dose of the vaccine by the Diwali of 2021. 
You proved me wrong once again. I let out a shrill cry on that wonderful morning in end March 2021 when I read that your team has decided to throw open the vaccination process for all above 45 yrs of age, irrespective of whether one has any health complications or not w.e.f 1st April 2021. 
I checked out the Cowin website immediately and was delighted to find that we two were still registered on the site. 
1st April came. My wife insisted that we head to any of the private vaccination centers near our place of stay in Kolkata. 
On that particular day, I couldn't take my eyes off the various news channels showing the happenings in Nandigram. More than the virus, the 'vinaash' of the venomous lady was far more important to me. 
Then came 2nd April. 
Sir, let me admit that I am paranoid about getting pierced with that small but scary looking needle.  
However, after waking up from sleep on Saturday, 10th April, I mustered enough courage and headed to the Kolkata unit of a  multi-speciality hospital chain, located off the EM Bypass with my wife. It was 12.45 pm. The vaccination venue resembled any working day in Canning Street in Kolkata. We would have had to wait in a queue with at least 170 people ahead of us waiting under a 'shamiana' for their 1st dose of Covaxin. 
Needless to mention, we beat a hasty retreat. 
We headed straight to Techno India Dama Healthcare and Research Hospital, LB Bock, Salt Lake, on EM Bypass and besides National University of Judicial Sciences. We were just behind 8 people who were there for their 1st dose of Covaxin on payment of ₹250 per head. 
All private healthcare centers in this part of my city were administering Covaxin today. 
Sharp at 2.30 pm on 2021-04-10, a pretty young and professionally adept lady nurse jabbed the syringe 💉 with the 1st dose on my right upper arm while my wife stood clicking photos of the process for the Covaxin vaccine to work on me. 
My wife made it clear to me that she would scream at me if I dared to click her photo while she got pierced. 
The process over, we kept waiting at the adjacent squeaky clean air conditioned waiting room for about 30 minutes before another masked pretty lady arrived to give us some important dos and donts. She also warned us of possibilities of extreme joint pains and high fever lasting for a maximum of 2 days and recommended paracetamol tablets and use of ice packs should the need arise. 
Within 2 - 3 minutes after getting jabbed, I got an SMS confirming that we have indeed received our 1st dose of vaccine and would have to wait for another 28 - 42 days for the 2nd dose. The certificate in .pdf format got generated instantly on the Cowin website. 
For the vaccine to be absolutely effective, we clicked a couple of more photos for your perusal and also for the perusal of my friends. 
Returned home thoroughly satisfied with the experience. And BTW, to commemorate the days sweet experience, bought 1 kg of sweet black grapes 🍇 and a water melon 🍈 weighing 2.5 kgs on the way back. 
After all my eligible Indian Roadie  friends pan-India get jabbed twice and the second wave of Corona presently sweeping India subsides, we should meet up and rejoice. Till such time, please obey the Covid-19 protocols and stay safe with your dear ones. 
Irrespective of whether you have reached the eligible age or not, healthy or co-morbid, vaccinated or not, please start believing that wearing of masks 😷, maintaining hygiene and social distancing 👤✖️👤 are extremely important for the welfare of all. 
If at all you need to travel, please register online and get vaccinated before the rush for getting vaccinated becomes unbearable. 

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* Pathbreaking Initiatives By BJP Government  

* Modi Hai Toh Mumkin Hai 

I am back on Facebook on 2021-03-02 at around 4.45 pm after 7 days

Jai Shree Ram 🙏 

At around 4.45 pm on Tuesday 2021-03-02,  I am back with all my friends after a forced hiatus of 7 days since Tuesday, 2021-02-23 afternoon. 

Waiting for the 'achche din' when India will be fully 'aatmanirbhar' without having to hear from some company that a Pakistani or Bangladeshi or someone of the 'tukde tukde gang' decide on what's good or  what's bad for deshbhakts!

Some physical and psychological scars will keep haunting me for life, especially during the 1st week of February every year. There was lot of #BloodInMyHand (Part 1) 😩. 
That is 'the' incident which strengthened my resolve for 'Live To Help, Happy To Drive'. 
At the outset, scroll over to only the 1st photo attached with this post. Thereafter, start reading. Watch all the photos once again after reading  the whole post. Can you see the scar on my forehead which extends from a deep depression immediately on top of my left eyebrow to the cut mark which actually extends right upto the back of my skull? 

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Remembering a terrible day and the exact time, viz. 10.05 pm in the 1st week of February 2001 exactly 20 years ago. 
Thank God that my eyes are intact, and better still that I am alive and kicking and typing out the spine chilling experience for the first time exactly after 20 years. 
It was a day of hectic back to back management lectures and client meetings on that fateful day. 
I stay near the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. By 10 am, my little Neptune Blue Maruti 800 (my ride those days) bearing the WB02B2**0 registration number took me to Small Industries Service Institute (SISI), off B.T.Road, near Indian Statistical Institute (ISI Kolkata) to deliver a talk on the nuances of marketing and selling professionally to 50 odd small and medium enterprise owners in Kolkata. 
By 1 pm, I was at a client meeting at Belghoria, followed by another meeting in Salt Lake at 3.30 pm. At 6 pm I was in Vivekananda Road (off C.R.Avenue) for a long meeting to finalize the marketing and revenue earning strategies of a start up venture by a XIM Bhubaneswar passout with a couple of years of experience in family business. 
At 9.50 pm, a happy me was on my way back home via Maniktala Main Road. 
It was chill outside. All the window glasses were rolled up. The road was surprisingly empty. I had crossed the Maniktala railway underpass and was almost near the very familiar Kankurgachi crossing (just 3 kms from my home) with tramlines neatly laid out alongside the high median dividers. 
Those days the bald commie transport minister who always donned a cap or a hat had come up with a weird idea of constructing a foot high concrete platforms, each measuring about 20 ft in length on the main carriageway at 4 - 6 critical junctions in the city for passengers to board or alight from Kolkata's ubiquitous tramcars.    
I was driving at a leisurely 30 - 35 kmph. I saw a CSTC state bus stopping awkwardly, I mean somewhat diagonally. I was in no hurry to drive on the tramline between the median divider and the platform. I downshifted to 1st gear and was crawling ahead expecting the bus to move ahead soon enough. It was exactly 10.04pm. 
And then terrible misfortune stuck. Suddenly I had this feeling (maybe some optical aberration) that a Tata Sumo playing loud music was about to enter my flank of the road at a breakneck speed from another road at right angles to Maniktala Main Road. Since I was crawling, I was certain that the Sumo would crash into me on the right side. 
Very unlike of me, I panicked and revved ahead in 1st gear to avoid being hit at full blast on the right, and clearly remember having screamed in Bangla, "Eh maa. Ki korlam" (Omg .... what did I do)! 
At 1500+ RPM in 1st gear, the front right wheel of the little devil hit the  concrete platform. The car jumped 4 - 5 feet in the air and overturned on its left side. There were no seat belts in my model of cars those days. Stuck between the two seats I held on to the pillars on the left even while the car slid on its left side for almost 10 feet. 
That being a prime business cum residential locality, some people who were closing shop late were witness to the entire sequence of events. 
About 8 - 10 of them came running and pushed the car back on its wheels with a huge thud and me trapped inside the front right side mangled vehicle. 
My face was in excruciating pain and could barely see anything in the dark. The front doors had jammed. I pulled myself to the front passenger seat and after a couple of hard kicks, the right door flung open. A totally dazed me was carefully lifted out of the car and even while they held on to me, I rested leaning on the right side of the car. The front of the formal light brown coloured full-sleeved shirt was drenched in my own blood and I was continuously spitting blood and hairs. I had some sharp pain on my right knee, too. I took out my folded handkerchief and pressed it on my head where it pained heavily. Believe in me, the finger and the hanky went down into the cracked skull. I was so dazed that the initial feeling was that the surface of my skull indeed was of that shape. The rectangular headlights were still on. Somebody switched it off and retrieved my Ericsson handphone which resembled a hammer. 
My saviors held me by the armpit and just about limped/ dragged myself to the Nursing Home at the Kankurgachi crossing. In spite of seeing my bloody looks and with so many very decent people of the locality, the security personnel firmly evicted me from the premises citing possible legal hassles. People tried to reason out with the nursing home manager and attending doctors, but they were adamant on not allowing me to remain in their premises. 
I was still in my senses although I was bleeding profusely and talking incoherently. I managed to give a few of my well wishers my business cards. Since I operated from home (then and even now), my wife was reached via the landline number almost immediately. 
With me pressing the hanky on my cracked skull oozing blood profusely, I was ferried to Divine Nursing Home in Beliaghata, about 1.5 kms from my residence and also 1.5 kms from the accident spot in an autorickshaw. 
The treatment meted out in Divine Nursing Home (NH) was no better, if not worse. I was made to lie on the glass top of the table at the reception. I kept mumbling seeking for Nebasulf powder and some assistance to clean the hairs from my eyes, nose and mouth. Nobody in the NH wanted to have anything to do with me. A very famous elderly surgeon who had his own NH at Harrington Street was on a visit to Divine at around 11 pm then. The moment he came close to me, my wife, Diya broke down uncontrollably and sought for his intervention. He did nothing and in his highly accented English smiled and said, "Gentleman, how did you manage to do this to yourself" and left 😡 
Diya started frantically calling up my regular contacts. My very dear sister Suchanda Sar, a successful eye-surgeon herself and her husband Krisnendu said that they will rush to Birla's Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI) in Alipore immediately leaving their 5 yrs old son suffering from high fever all alone at home.  They advised Diya to transfer me to CMRI in an ambulance. My friends and well wishers in sales and marketing in reputed corporate entities also assured Diya that they too were on their way to CMRI post midnight. 
My wife, brother-in-law and the good samaritans who rescued me from my car frantically ran all around to get an ambulance. With blood still oozing out unhindered from my skull and me in phenomenal pain, the ambulance reached me upto the door steps of the well equipped Emergency section of CMRI at 1am and I was wheeled in to the operation theatre. By then 3 hrs had lapsed, well beyond the fabled golden hours after the mishap. 
14 stitches involving drilling 28 holes into my already cracked nut had to be dug without any anaesthesia. The whole process had to be done without anaesthesia because the trauma involved my skull and brain. The medical professionals had to ensure that I couldn't be allowed to doze off. The process of removing thick/ clotted blood from my head was insane and I must have screamed so loud that I was audible 5 kms away. I will never forget the way they kept pressing my skull while my feet rested against the wall. The scene of blood spraying out like that from a 'pichkari' onto the walls and the dress of Krisnendu was so scary that it jolts me out of sleep even after two decades. 
Thereafter, the CT Scan and MRI done at the wee hours revealed that I had survived serious permanent damage or even death by an whisker. Suddenly, I passed out for a short while, maybe for 15 - 20 mins. When I regained my senses, I realized that the doctors were preparing to shift me to a private cabin in some higher floor in the huge hospital. My demand was very clear. Since I had survived, I had to return home to my daughter Diksha who was just 3 yrs then. I didn't want to lose anymore time to be back to her, almost 13 kms away. 
With a huge bandage on my head, I was back home at 3.30 am. 
P.S: There might be a Part 2 of this article at a future date. 
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Can anybody guess what exactly split my skull into two? 
Keep guessing. Keep commenting 😊 
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Thank you Suchanda and Tito (Krisnendu)  for always standing rock solid with us. Love you'll a lot. 
My Ma, Diya and Diksha always keep thanking you'll, especially for your support on that dreadful night. 

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* Mishap And Calamity 
* Indian Roadie Recollections 
* Seen It All, Done It All, Experienced It All

Washing of fruits and vegetables has become the new normal ever since March 2020

It's because of the Chinese virus that this has become the new normal in my household. Every vegetable and fruit item bought from the market is painstakingly dipped in light detergent solution for 30 minutes and then scrubbed clean in flowing tap water and left to dry naturally for 6 to 12 hours 😡😡😡 

Photographed on 2020-01-30.

Visited Ma for lunch on 2021-01-12 and a meet up with Joydeep Chatterjee while returning to Beliaghata

Lunch comprising of my favorite murighonto, rice, fish curry, chicken kasha and cauliflower with Ma and a few hours of giving her company at Behala house on 2021-01-12. 

While returning, strolled around on Jatin Bagchi Road (adjacent to Vivekananda Park, off Southern Avenue) for about an hour with fellow Xaverian classmate Joydeep Chattopadhayay after almost a year. It was such a refreshing break. 

Thank you JC for the beautiful 2021 diary and the very practical calendar with large fonts. 

P.S: I have been religiously maintaining diaries since the past 45+ years. I should be having at least 25 odd of those golden memories in my collection!  

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* Visiting Ma on 2021-01-12. 

* Made By Ma At Home 

* Timeless Fond Recollections

Visited Ma on 2020-12-26 to pick up the cakes she baked for us

Ma called me on 2020-12-26 morning to tell me that she has baked two variants of cakes, viz. with dry fruits and oats respectively and that I should pick them up for her granddaughter. 

There was no way that I could delay a visit to meet her and also have lunch with her. 
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* Visiting Ma on 2020-12-26 

* Made By Ma At Home 
* Timeless Fond Recollections

Ma was visibly happy on getting her Durga Puja 2020 gift from us on 2020-11-12

Bijoya Dasami was on Tuesday 2020-10-24. 

The fear of Corona was so strong that I could muster enough courage to visit Ma alone for the first time after Durga Puja only on 2020-11-12. 

Ma had categorically told me to refrain from buying her the customary saree for Durga Pujo 2020. 

Knowing her love for cooking even at this age, I gifted Ma a box of Prestige (TTK Ltd) goodies comprising of 1 non-stick kadai, 2 non-stick tawas and a glass lid. 

Ma was visibly so happy. 

While leaving Behala after lunch with Ma on 2020-12-16

While leaving Behala after lunch with Ma on Wednesday, 2020-12-16 at 4.30 pm.