Corona Virus : its Economic and travel Impact, including on our family.
The Corona Virus, about which I have written two articles on my blogpost, the first on the 24th January and the second on the 7th February, is continuing to make global headlines and has once again made it to the front page of today’s Times of India, Mumbai edition. Its adverse effect on global economy including tours and travels is continuing to be experienced by most people that includes my family as well. The threat of the virus has adversely affected my nephew and his family’s travel back to US from our home town Raichur, where they had come for performing a religious ritual for their son Shreyas. Similarly, travel plan of my wife and my father in law, which was planned four months ago, for an organised 8 days tour to Japan, through the SOTC group, had to be cancelled. Both these events have costed our family and so we can imagine what the cost of this virus could be on the global economy. While all nations are busy combating and tackling this epidemic, the global economic cost of the coronavirus is estimated to be more than 1 trillion US Dollars. This price is estimated based on the workplace absenteeism, lower productivity, sliding travel, disrupted supply chains and reduced trade and investment, resulting from the global scare that the virus has caused. Hopefully the epidemic is controlled very soon failing which the cost is likely to increase substantially if it hits the most awaited event of the year—The Olympics. This crisis has prompted me to write this post on the Corona virus, which is now a world epidemic that is threatening to become a pandemic.
The live statistics of Corona virus (COVID-19), which is being put out on a dedicated website gives a figure of 86898 confirmed cases with 2977 deaths ( as on 1st March 2020, 11.26 AM) spread across 62 countries and territories around the world including the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was harboured in Yokohama, Japan, which also had on board few Indians, who have since been brought back to India. Although number of deaths are constantly increasing and spreading beyond the Wuhan city and the Chinese boarder, fortunately there has not been a single fatal incident in India, notwithstanding the fact that there have been confirmed cases of patients affected with the virus. The government of India, the health ministry in particular under the leadership of Dr Harshvardhan ji must be credited for this achievement and also for aiding the people stranded in Wuhan and Diamond Princes Cruise to be brought back to India and for ensuring that the virus is contained. Of the 86000 plus people who have been infected with this virus, roughly half of them (39797) have already recovered and an estimated 43014 active cases are still being attended to, out of which 7818 (18%) people are reported to be serious or critical, which means the number of deaths may continue to raise in the days and weeks to come.
The best selling book “The World is Flat : A Brief History of the Twenty First Century." by Thomas Friedman, New York Times, columnist, uses a metaphor -World is Flat- to describe the 21st century’s connected world. The advantages that the connected world offers are more than offset by the most profound challenges of rapid spread infectious diseases, outbreaks, and antimicrobial fatalities in this connected world the impact of which we are now witnessing. The COVID-2019 epidemic, which has spread to more than sixty countries, exemplifies the pitfalls of a connected world. All it takes is a flight and an affected individual for the virus to spread from one corner of the world to the other in the shortest of time. And it is this fear, which has taken a toll on international trade, commerce and travels and not surprisingly my family too has been affected by this.
My nephew, Chaitanya Khened, who works with Intel, San Jose, USA, had arrived in India with his wife and son (aged 18 months) for the ಜವಳ (मुंडन )ceremony of his son Shreyas, which was to be performed at our ancestral family’s Nandi temple on the shores of the lake at the historic town of Kanakagiri, on the 4th February. Kanakagiri, meaning ‘hill of gold’, is a historical place situated in Karnataka State, in Gangavati taluk of Koppal district. Our grandson, Shreyas’s ಜವಳ ceremony was an opportunity for our family to get together and celebrate it at our ancestral temple in Kanakagiri. Incidentally Kanakagiri is a historic town, which came to prominence during the rule of the Vijayanagar kingdom. Hampi, the capital of the Vijayanagar exemplifies the architectural beauty and richness of this kingdom. While Hampi and Kanakagiri have a similar legacy, Hampi has found a prominent place on the world tourist map, while most unfortunately Kanakagiri has been completely forgotten that includes the famous Kanakachalapathi temple.
The Kanakachalapathi temple is a 16th-century Hindu temple dedicated to lord Vishnu. Legend has it that Kanakagiri was known in ancient times as "Swarnagiri" ("Hill of Gold"). Besides our ancestral Nandi temple, the town has several other ancient temples, which were built by the Naiks of Kanakgiri - the Palegars, who were ruled by the Vijayanagar kings. The Kanakachalapathi is the largest temple and is very well known for its architectural beauty, that is typical of the Vijayanagara times. The influence of Vijayanagar’s culture and architecture is evident in the town. There are many beautiful monuments scattered across the town. The principal deity of the Palegars of Kanakagiri was Kanakachalapathi and therefore they constructed this temple in honour of their deity. The Kanakachalapati temple has a rangamantapa in the middle, which is supported by 34 pillars and the temple top portion, most elegantly, depicts colourful dolls and sculptures that narrate mythological stories from the epics. The temple has five gopuras, and the shrine houses a well ‘Venkatapathi Bhaavi”, which was meant for the use by the king’s family. This well was built by Venkatappa Nayak in 1586 AD. The Trimurti deities, Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma are found on three sides of this well, which is built in the Indo-Islamic style. The sculptures in the temple includes the mythological figures, which are carved in wood and pilaster while those of kings and queens in black stone. There is a local saying in Kanakagiri, which exemplifies the beauty of the temple; it says "people with eyes must see Kanakagiri and those with legs Hampi”, affirming that the Kanakachalapathi temple is a delight to the eyes, where as one needs to walk tirelessly to enjoy the architectural wonders of the city of Hampi, which is now a UNESCO World heritage cite. The Kanakachalapti temple fair, organised during phalguna, the months of February and March, attracts quite a large number of devotees. The carvings on the walls and roof of the temple are quite fascinating. There is also a seven-pillared structure in the temple complex, which produces music when you strike it, which is quite similar to the famous pillar structure in Hampi. The tragedy however is that while Hampi receives hundreds of thousands of visitors annually and so also tens of millions of rupees in funding for its restoration and development, Kanakagiri, which is equally rich in its architecture, has been mostly neglected.
A visit to the city of Kanakagiri and our ancestral Nandi temple in the town is a must for us whenever we are in our home town, more so since my wife is highly religious and she demands that we must visit the Nandi temple and perform pooja whenever we go to Karnataka. My Bhabhi and wife and so also all of my other relatives, are equally devoted to this temple and age old traditions of our family performing the Pooja at our ancestral temple. Following this tradition, our nephew flew all the way from San Jose, USA, with his wife and Son to continue this tradition, for performing the ಜವಳ ceremony of his son Shreyas at our ancestral temple in Kanakagiri, a glimpse of this Pooja are shared in the accompanying photographs. Unfortunately all his travel plans went for a six, since he had booked his return journey with his family from Hyderabad to Hongkong to San Francisco on the 20th of February and by then the fear of the Corona virus was so very scary, more so in Hongkong, that he had to cancel their journey in the last minute and instead booked a revised ticket from Bangalore to Delhi to San Francisco, which costed him dearly.
Similarly my Father in Law, who needed a major change post the tragic demise of his beloved wife and his eldest son, had planned for a eight day organised tour to Japan with my wife - his favourite daughter- who is now a major source of mental support for him. Their organised travel to Japan was booked through SOTC, a well know travel agency and they were schedule to leave Mumbai next week. Unfortunately since the spread of Corona virus kept increasing, there was no way for us but to cancel this trip and this cancellation too has costed us.
Infectious diseases like the current COVID-19, TB, Malaria, Dengue, Influenza, AIDS, Ebola, Cholera, Plague, Nipah, Zika etc. terrorise most nations including India and kill tens of thousands people every year. It is no wonder they also create a havoc on the global economy, including adversely affecting travels, just as it did for our family. Some experts say the current global health crisis could cost few trillion dollars for the global economy. This is based in the study of the cost of the economic impact of SARS in 2003. International companies have started sounding alarms over the likely economic impacts of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in China, warning that reduced flows of goods and people into and out of China - the second-largest economy - will have a tangible impact on business and product availability throughout the world. The fact that the world's manufacturing hubs in Asia have become the epicentre of the epidemic has worsened the impact.
Let us hope that the collective efforts of global community will help in combating the Corona virus menace and hopefully sooner than later all things become normal.
The Corona Virus, about which I have written two articles on my blogpost, the first on the 24th January and the second on the 7th February, is continuing to make global headlines and has once again made it to the front page of today’s Times of India, Mumbai edition. Its adverse effect on global economy including tours and travels is continuing to be experienced by most people that includes my family as well. The threat of the virus has adversely affected my nephew and his family’s travel back to US from our home town Raichur, where they had come for performing a religious ritual for their son Shreyas. Similarly, travel plan of my wife and my father in law, which was planned four months ago, for an organised 8 days tour to Japan, through the SOTC group, had to be cancelled. Both these events have costed our family and so we can imagine what the cost of this virus could be on the global economy. While all nations are busy combating and tackling this epidemic, the global economic cost of the coronavirus is estimated to be more than 1 trillion US Dollars. This price is estimated based on the workplace absenteeism, lower productivity, sliding travel, disrupted supply chains and reduced trade and investment, resulting from the global scare that the virus has caused. Hopefully the epidemic is controlled very soon failing which the cost is likely to increase substantially if it hits the most awaited event of the year—The Olympics. This crisis has prompted me to write this post on the Corona virus, which is now a world epidemic that is threatening to become a pandemic.
The live statistics of Corona virus (COVID-19), which is being put out on a dedicated website gives a figure of 86898 confirmed cases with 2977 deaths ( as on 1st March 2020, 11.26 AM) spread across 62 countries and territories around the world including the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was harboured in Yokohama, Japan, which also had on board few Indians, who have since been brought back to India. Although number of deaths are constantly increasing and spreading beyond the Wuhan city and the Chinese boarder, fortunately there has not been a single fatal incident in India, notwithstanding the fact that there have been confirmed cases of patients affected with the virus. The government of India, the health ministry in particular under the leadership of Dr Harshvardhan ji must be credited for this achievement and also for aiding the people stranded in Wuhan and Diamond Princes Cruise to be brought back to India and for ensuring that the virus is contained. Of the 86000 plus people who have been infected with this virus, roughly half of them (39797) have already recovered and an estimated 43014 active cases are still being attended to, out of which 7818 (18%) people are reported to be serious or critical, which means the number of deaths may continue to raise in the days and weeks to come.
The best selling book “The World is Flat : A Brief History of the Twenty First Century." by Thomas Friedman, New York Times, columnist, uses a metaphor -World is Flat- to describe the 21st century’s connected world. The advantages that the connected world offers are more than offset by the most profound challenges of rapid spread infectious diseases, outbreaks, and antimicrobial fatalities in this connected world the impact of which we are now witnessing. The COVID-2019 epidemic, which has spread to more than sixty countries, exemplifies the pitfalls of a connected world. All it takes is a flight and an affected individual for the virus to spread from one corner of the world to the other in the shortest of time. And it is this fear, which has taken a toll on international trade, commerce and travels and not surprisingly my family too has been affected by this.
My nephew, Chaitanya Khened, who works with Intel, San Jose, USA, had arrived in India with his wife and son (aged 18 months) for the ಜವಳ (मुंडन )ceremony of his son Shreyas, which was to be performed at our ancestral family’s Nandi temple on the shores of the lake at the historic town of Kanakagiri, on the 4th February. Kanakagiri, meaning ‘hill of gold’, is a historical place situated in Karnataka State, in Gangavati taluk of Koppal district. Our grandson, Shreyas’s ಜವಳ ceremony was an opportunity for our family to get together and celebrate it at our ancestral temple in Kanakagiri. Incidentally Kanakagiri is a historic town, which came to prominence during the rule of the Vijayanagar kingdom. Hampi, the capital of the Vijayanagar exemplifies the architectural beauty and richness of this kingdom. While Hampi and Kanakagiri have a similar legacy, Hampi has found a prominent place on the world tourist map, while most unfortunately Kanakagiri has been completely forgotten that includes the famous Kanakachalapathi temple.
The Kanakachalapathi temple is a 16th-century Hindu temple dedicated to lord Vishnu. Legend has it that Kanakagiri was known in ancient times as "Swarnagiri" ("Hill of Gold"). Besides our ancestral Nandi temple, the town has several other ancient temples, which were built by the Naiks of Kanakgiri - the Palegars, who were ruled by the Vijayanagar kings. The Kanakachalapathi is the largest temple and is very well known for its architectural beauty, that is typical of the Vijayanagara times. The influence of Vijayanagar’s culture and architecture is evident in the town. There are many beautiful monuments scattered across the town. The principal deity of the Palegars of Kanakagiri was Kanakachalapathi and therefore they constructed this temple in honour of their deity. The Kanakachalapati temple has a rangamantapa in the middle, which is supported by 34 pillars and the temple top portion, most elegantly, depicts colourful dolls and sculptures that narrate mythological stories from the epics. The temple has five gopuras, and the shrine houses a well ‘Venkatapathi Bhaavi”, which was meant for the use by the king’s family. This well was built by Venkatappa Nayak in 1586 AD. The Trimurti deities, Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma are found on three sides of this well, which is built in the Indo-Islamic style. The sculptures in the temple includes the mythological figures, which are carved in wood and pilaster while those of kings and queens in black stone. There is a local saying in Kanakagiri, which exemplifies the beauty of the temple; it says "people with eyes must see Kanakagiri and those with legs Hampi”, affirming that the Kanakachalapathi temple is a delight to the eyes, where as one needs to walk tirelessly to enjoy the architectural wonders of the city of Hampi, which is now a UNESCO World heritage cite. The Kanakachalapti temple fair, organised during phalguna, the months of February and March, attracts quite a large number of devotees. The carvings on the walls and roof of the temple are quite fascinating. There is also a seven-pillared structure in the temple complex, which produces music when you strike it, which is quite similar to the famous pillar structure in Hampi. The tragedy however is that while Hampi receives hundreds of thousands of visitors annually and so also tens of millions of rupees in funding for its restoration and development, Kanakagiri, which is equally rich in its architecture, has been mostly neglected.
A visit to the city of Kanakagiri and our ancestral Nandi temple in the town is a must for us whenever we are in our home town, more so since my wife is highly religious and she demands that we must visit the Nandi temple and perform pooja whenever we go to Karnataka. My Bhabhi and wife and so also all of my other relatives, are equally devoted to this temple and age old traditions of our family performing the Pooja at our ancestral temple. Following this tradition, our nephew flew all the way from San Jose, USA, with his wife and Son to continue this tradition, for performing the ಜವಳ ceremony of his son Shreyas at our ancestral temple in Kanakagiri, a glimpse of this Pooja are shared in the accompanying photographs. Unfortunately all his travel plans went for a six, since he had booked his return journey with his family from Hyderabad to Hongkong to San Francisco on the 20th of February and by then the fear of the Corona virus was so very scary, more so in Hongkong, that he had to cancel their journey in the last minute and instead booked a revised ticket from Bangalore to Delhi to San Francisco, which costed him dearly.
Similarly my Father in Law, who needed a major change post the tragic demise of his beloved wife and his eldest son, had planned for a eight day organised tour to Japan with my wife - his favourite daughter- who is now a major source of mental support for him. Their organised travel to Japan was booked through SOTC, a well know travel agency and they were schedule to leave Mumbai next week. Unfortunately since the spread of Corona virus kept increasing, there was no way for us but to cancel this trip and this cancellation too has costed us.
Infectious diseases like the current COVID-19, TB, Malaria, Dengue, Influenza, AIDS, Ebola, Cholera, Plague, Nipah, Zika etc. terrorise most nations including India and kill tens of thousands people every year. It is no wonder they also create a havoc on the global economy, including adversely affecting travels, just as it did for our family. Some experts say the current global health crisis could cost few trillion dollars for the global economy. This is based in the study of the cost of the economic impact of SARS in 2003. International companies have started sounding alarms over the likely economic impacts of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in China, warning that reduced flows of goods and people into and out of China - the second-largest economy - will have a tangible impact on business and product availability throughout the world. The fact that the world's manufacturing hubs in Asia have become the epicentre of the epidemic has worsened the impact.
Let us hope that the collective efforts of global community will help in combating the Corona virus menace and hopefully sooner than later all things become normal.
1 comment:
Very useful information.
Thank You for sharing.
Gati Packers And Movers Bangalore
Post a Comment