Akshay Konnur's Blog Post

One of the ancient & beat-up proverbs, "prevention is better than cure" is abundantly preached & rarely practiced. A lot of lives & relations could have been saved in COVID-19 pandemic if each of one us had undertaken effective preventive measures in terms of personal hygiene & social distancing. The above situation could have been possible in an ideal world but the world is not ideal & hence we have to deal with reality. Unlock 1.0 is expected to see an exponential rise in COVID-19 cases as the businesses will gradually return to normalcy & social boundaries will shrink drastically. This is the most critical time for our immunity to be strong & respiratory health to be at best to safeguard ourselves from catching Coronavirus infections. Clinical studies & panic-selling media have already confirmed the importance of strong immunity in preventing COVID-19 but very few words are shed in media for spreading awareness of respiratory health....

Most of us have grown up watching a family TV at home. Programs to be watched were either pre-decided by elders or decided by the one who held the remote. Biological breaks were often synchronized with the commercial breaks. Kids would often bunk extra classes on Saturdays & sacrifice morning slumber on Sundays to watch their favorite superhero Shaktiman. In this never-ending lockdown period, many of us may have realized that TVs are past their prime & the next big thing in the entertainment industry is OTT (Over The Top) platform. OTTs once looked at as an alien concept are rapidly growing their roots in the entertainment industry today. In the lockdown period, OTT majors like Netflix, Prime Video, ZEE5 & MX Player have already posted more than 200% growth in their subscribers base. What is really driving us to OTT platforms? Boredom stemming from traditional TV providers:  Repeat telecasts, fear-selling media & high decibel news debates on ...

The most celebrated silver lining of COVID-19 lockdown is work from home. The luxury once limited to the very few & selected sectors became obligatory across industries in lockdown. The most increasingly sought opportunity of striking work-life balance came as a blessing in disguise. Many seemingly impossible ideas will become “New Normal” & work from home is definitely one of them. Work from home once seen as an obligatory & temporary thing can be a permanent possibility in the near future. “Workspace”, one of the most expensive commodities in the business parks will be managed through work from home scheme. Pointless commuting hours, over-burdened public transport, flying fuel expenses & late toiling hours at work can be all sorted through the work from home scheme. The scheme doesn’t seem to have a flip side at all. But the story is different for those who have spent most of their careers in cubicles & cabins. I strongly believe, brainstorming meetings have...

The earlier record of Alexander conquering half a world is now held in the name of Coronavirus. With the speed swifter than blitz Krieg; Coronavirus has conquered a fairly large portion of mother earth with a minuscule resistance. It reminded me of many unopposed democratic victories of Indian Congress Party’s bigwigs back in the 70s. COVID-19 is burgeoning today across the world over the broths of ill-hygiene practices, government unpreparedness, lack of healthcare infrastructure, social fear & ignorance of fellow citizens. History has witnessed multiple pandemics over the years which were more deadly than COVID-19 is. Multiple plague outbreaks have claimed half of China's population & 1/3rd of Europe's population in the 19th century. India alone had seen casualties in the tune of 12 million during the world-wide outbreak of plague in 1855. Pandemics of Plague, Spanish Flu, EBOLA & H1N1 have haunted human civilization at regular intervals & what we learned fr...