‘This book has a remarkable set of essays that very powerfully capture the impact of the lockdown on the lives of ordinary people for whom even a small disruption of daily routine can entail profound consequences. A must read for those wanting to understand what happened in those awful summer months of 2020.’ – SUJATHA RAO, Former Union Health Secretary, India and author of Do We Care? India’s Healthcare System

Born and brought up in Kashmir, Aamir Peerzada is a BBC Journalist based in Srinagar. He has previously worked with NDTV as a reporter and producer, where he went on to produce several award-winning documentary films.

Anoo Bhuyan is a multi-media journalist from Bengaluru, living in New Delhi. She closely covered the COVID19 pandemic in India. She has worked at The Wire; Outlook Magazine; IndiaSpend, The BBC and NPR, and comments on public policy at a number of Indian and foreign publications.

Surgeons Kalpana Swaminathan and Ishrat Syed write together as Kalpish Ratna. Their book A Crown of Thorns—The Coronavirus & Us was published in August 2020. Their forthcoming book is titled A Pandemonium in Pakshila.

MG Radhakrishnan has four decades of experience in journalism. He is currently the Editor of Asianet News channel, based in Thiruvananthapuram. He has earlier worked with India Today and Mathrubhumi and has authored four books.

Namita Bhandare is a journalist with close to 30 years of experience with publications such as India Today, Sunday and Hindustan Times. In 2013, she was appointed India’s first gender editor for Mint. She is on the editorial board of the news website, Article-14. She writes almost exclusively on gender issues, including a regular column for the Hindustan Times. She lives in New Delhi.

Pooja Dhingra is the founder of the Le15 chain of patisseries and café. She is an INK Fellow, and hosts an extremely popular podcast called #NoSugarCoat. She has authored three books - The Big Book of Treats; The Wholesome Kitchen; Can’t Believe It’s Eggless. She lives and works in Mumbai.

Omkar Goswami is an economist, who has taught in India and abroad for 18 years. He was at Business India earlier, and was the chief economist of the Confederation of Indian Industry. He is also the founder of CERG Advisory, a consulting firm and author of three books, and over 70 refereed articles. He loves reading, music, films and escaping to the mountains when he can.

Saba Naqvi is a Delhi based journalist and the author of four books, mostly recently Politics of Jugaad and Shades of Saffron: From Vajpayee To Modi. The former political editor of Outlook magazine, Naqvi is now a columnist and a familiar face on television as an election analyst and commentator.

Soutik Biswas is the India Correspondent, and Features of Analysis Editor of BBC News Online. He is a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and a Reuters Fellow at the University of Oxford.