Dispatches from a Pandemic ‘The police have mopped up a tidy sum by way of fines for mask-wearing noncompliance, though social distancing is not being enforced’ CHENNAI, India — “Will India be No.1 by Dussehra, or Diwali?” Atul Thakur, referring to major Hindu festivals occurring in October and November, poses that question in the Times of India. He is not talking about primacy in economic growth. Rather, he refers to the number of COVID-19 infections and the pace of their increase, which are...

CHENNAI, India — Kamalammal, 65, strains her ears to catch the TV news from the adjoining hut. She is anxiously awaiting the reopening of Marina Beach in India’s southernmost state, Tamil Nadu, where she used to earn Rs. 300 ($4) a day serving hot-from-the-oven snacks to visitors. With the beaches closed down and all congregations banned, starvation stares her in the face. Even after a series of lockdowns from mid-March for the country’s 1.3 billion citizens, there is no sign of the...