Life behind Masks: The Many Shades of Hope in the Times of Covid

‘The real impact of Covid can never be measured through numbersbut through what it did to ordinary people.’

On 24 March 2020, the lives of 1.3 billion Indians suddenly changed. By the time the country went into a nationwide lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, it had become evident that this was not just a viral pneumonia but a more insidious and mysterious adversary that was claiming millions of lives. The devastating consequences of the virus had overwhelmed some of the best healthcare systems globally and brought the entire world to a complete standstill. But the most glaring fact was that the virus was here to stay.

Life behind Masks provides a vivid account of people from all walks of life in search of their own meaning and hope against the backdrop of Covid. From a couple who fell in love over frozen blood plasma to a millionaire who was forced to sell fruits in the lockdown—the book poignantly portrays a compendium of stories that reinforce the importance of never giving up. These accounts are further enriched through insightful expositions by prominent virologists, epidemiologists, psychiatrists, public health analysts, microbiologists, bureaucrats, pulmonologists and internal medicine specialists. All in all, Life behind Masks is a defining chronicle of the unheard truth, which is gripping and moving in its testimony and utterly honest and timely in its depiction.