We take pride in the wrong things. This isn’t a reference to spineless actors or legendary cricketers who let us down by not speaking up when they should, but to our unhealthy obsession with hacks. We call them ‘jugaad’, and every part of India has its own local term for what is essentially a way of beating the system. This can be good in all kinds of ways, when it empowers people to help themselves in the face of an apathy or indifference, but can also lead to serious repercussions for society as a whole when personal profit overrides public well-being.

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown up innumerable instances of jugaad gone wrong, and the results have been fatal. I have heard rumours of travellers picking airports across India to get around quarantine rules, ignoring the fact that spreading a virus can lead to death and devastation in poorly governed localities. India’s rich have always been cruel, so expecting common sense to prevent them from going on holiday is naïve, but even people who would ordinarily hesitate to do something blatantly illegal have begun breaking the law with abandon over the past year.