So far, as per official records, 26 million Americans have applied for unemployment doles. And it’s a handsome dole: $600 a week from state and federal governments each – i.e., $ 4800 per month. With that kind of money, Americans can if they are so inclined see off coronavirus from behind closed doors. No hunger pangs. No ‘landlord’ to hammer on the door for missed rent-cheques. The children’s school fee not an immediate bother. The government will get flak if it gets too feisty.

But that does not mean everyone is at the unemployment dole counter. Those “working from home” aren’t entitled. Also, recent entrants on green cards and job visas. Many of both sort are trapped in “homes” across US. No job. No salary. Living on tight budgets getting tighter by the day. But well-off Indian Americans are reportedly stepping up with help. The US authorities are not bothered. If anything Trump has stopped immigration till further notice.

That said, there is no chaos in the USA as it’s in India. Americans are not breaking the social distancing rule. Liquor is there to buy in all US states. But Americans are not crowding and crowing at liquor vends. “It’s got to do with education,” says an Indian American living in New Jersey. “Even the American lower class has sense!” Insult? To Indians. Sure there’s no liquor available in India these days. But journalists in Hyderabad say Hyderabadis are shelling out Rs 5000 for a bottle of Royal Challenge!

Appears like not everybody who steps out during curfew breaks are not racing to the nearest standalone grocery. Some are differently thirsty! Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amrinder Singh will understand. Unlike Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Both of them wouldn’t know a peg from a peg! One to hang a clothesline from. The other to pour ‘small’ and ‘large’. To the favoured few, like the Capt., a Patiala!

A friend says corona days for him are days of discovery. He’s finding out new “facts of life and nature” around him. For instance, he now knows that crows “wake up” at exactly 5.15 am. Yup, he has been timing the caucus rise to a raucous chorus – always at 5.15 am! The clock on the mantle-piece is his witness. He has also discovered that salary is not always the last thing in man's troubled mind. There is another matter that takes precedence. Like not getting laid off! Does not matter if the annual salary review is indefinitely postponed. Or, for that matter, instead of a salary hike there’s a salary cut.

Journalists in top publications have gamely accepted salary cuts this April review. Managements have slashed salaries by 5-10 % and nobody has raised Cain. But journos are unhappy working from home. They want to return to noisy newsrooms. Newspapers have cut print orders. And circulation is at an all-time low.

However, what galls Indians in general is to discover that even after 70+ years, Indian industry is 80% in the unorganized sector; that nearly 90% of migrant workers find employment only in the unorganized sector and a huge portion of that 90% are ‘self-employed’, eking out livings on city and small town streets selling samosa-pakora, dosa-idli and ‘Amritsari chur-chur naan.’

This was what Modi told the World Economic Forum in Davos. Unemployed ‘Modi-bhakts’ at that time jumped to his defence when he was pilloried for his ‘pakoranomics’. Now, if the Government, from Modi down to the sarpanch, has failed to stop the migrant worker from jumping the corona fence, it’s because despite a thousand cautions and innumerable well-meaning suggestions, Modi refused to see the writing on the wall.

“Writing” that unemployment had plummeted to a 45-year low and that he should do something about it, pronto! This before corona drove joblessness further down. India’s unemployment is today dangerously low and you can bet your last paisa, if you have one to spare, that it will take more than Modi’s ‘pakoranomics’ to organize a revival of whatever little fortunes there were before the virus infected.

However, it seems Modi has better thing to do. He has an Ayurvedic formula/recipe to all states to boost the immunity of Indians in a post-Covid 19 India. The idiosyncrasies of leaders have been the toast the coronavirus season so far. Trump set the Poison Control Room in New York City on high alert after his ‘inject-with-Lysol’ suggestion. And, grapevine says, Prime Minister Imran Khan has quarantined himself from his heavily burqa-clad wife! The discoveries of India and 'abroad.' (IPA Service)