Illustration/Uday Mohite

So, at the outset, let me say I'm done imploding. This is explosion time. No more clichés — 'The people have resilience', or 'They went back to work the next morning'. It sounded heroic in the 90s… now it just sounds extinct. I was built in a certain way, with a certain constitution, a certain personality, nature and nurture combining beautifully in a fifty-fifty sharing. I accepted that selflessness and sacrifice came with the territory. And, I long realised that gratitude isn't in our DNA.