The good mangoes have started arriving. Two things make the brutal summers of Lahore sort of bearable and that are air-conditioning and good mangoes.

There are those fortunate enough to have multiple entry visas for countries with cooler climates where they find refuge from the summers of Lahore. Slightly lower down on the elite ladder are the ones that can escape to Mid-Eastern havens where evidently even the streets, though not quite paved with gold, are - I have been told - definitely air-conditioned.

Sadly, all those cooler countries as well as the Mid-Eastern havens are not quite ready to accept people from countries like ours. Also, as far as I know, international commercial air lines are not flying into or out of Pakistan.

Even if you do get to any of the havens mentioned above, probably you will be quarantined for a couple of weeks and then you will have to face various levels of lockdown. Their lockdowns are enforced much more vigorously than here in Pakistan. And most of those countries have pretty high incidents of Covid-19 as well as deaths from it.

Here in the interest of full disclosure I must admit that but for Corona I would most likely have been celebrating Eid with my family in the United States (US). After talking recently to family members in the US, I was told in no uncertain terms that I was better off here in Lahore. And I think that is good advice applicable for all those missing the shopping at Harrods or in the Dubai malls.

Now that we are here in Lahore, we do have to make the best of it. Of course, there are some that will escape to cooler places in Pakistan but that is no fun. And even without a lockdown it is a lockdown unless long walks are your default source of entertainment. I realise that with enough money to spend you can bring entertainers as well as entertainment into the wilderness.

But do remember that there is a pandemic going on and social distancing and self-isolation are the only ways to make sure that you do not get infected. And if you do get infected, the very fact that you could afford a private ‘chalet’ at some ‘tony’ hill station already puts you in a high risk category as a patient with Covid-19.

Enough about the problems of the poor rich people. For relatively ordinary folks like me, fortunately people my age are being discouraged from visiting mosques and probably are forbidden to visit shopping malls. So for all practical purposes I am better off at home.

Social isolation without doubt is the best way to avoid getting infected by the coronavirus. And as is obvious, the well-off have a much better chance of staying in social isolation but even the less well-off should practice some form of social isolation.

Once this spasm of religiosity is over and Eid and the holy month are safely behind us, the government will step in and do the needful. What the needful will be will obviously dependon how rapidly the infection spreads.

Recently essentially all forms of lockdown have been eliminated to some degree. The bazaars are full of Eid shoppers and social distancing or wearing of masks is not being practiced at all. Older people and those with medical problems are at a higher risk of having serious problems if they get Covid-19. Such people should clearly avoid these throngs of shoppers.

Personally, I believe that the honourable Supreme Court (SC) has demonstrated tremendous sagacity by essentially removing most forms of commercial lockdown. Though I don’t know if the SC has forbidden social distancing as well. In a confrontation between basic rights of individuals and attempts by the state to restrict them, basic right must win out.

As we have seen in this, the Land of the Pure, it is impossible to impose morality on people unwilling to be moral, similarly it is obviously impossible to impose safety on people unwilling to be safe. There is only so much the government can do in the interest of public safety but eventually it is the public that has to choose how much safety they are willing to accept.

Now it is time to indulge a semi-serious conspiracy theory. Since the general public is clearly unwilling to follow all sorts of safety protocols and ‘standard operating procedures’ aptly shortened as SOPs, the government under the guidance of the SC has essentially said to the people “go ahead, do what you want”.

Needless to say, which of course questions why must I be saying it, I will say that the removal of most restrictions on group and congregational activity will cause a major increase in the number of Covid-19 infections. Once this spasm of religiosity is over and Eid and the holy month are safely behind us, the government will step in and do the needful.

What the needful will be will obviously depend on how rapidly the infection spreads during this week. Here I do hope that we are not moving to some forms of limited curfews in areas declared as hot spots. My great fear is that we end up with a limited martial law with what that could possibly lead to.

So now back to more non-conspiratorial and relatively mundane matters. First about air-conditioning. The one major advantage during this summer so far is that electricity supply has held up and there has been no ‘load-shedding’. Whether we should be thankful for this to the present government or the previous one is a question I will leave for people that know more about such things to answer.

Hopefully, the power supply will hold up for the rest of the hot months and especially the hot and muggy monsoon season. But here I have an important question. I have lived through hurricanes and major storms in the US, but electric power supply was rarely interrupted and if it was, it was a result of serious damage to the infrastructure.

In Pakistan, however, any time it rains or if even the wind blows at any speed above that of a child on a tricycle, the electricity goes off. We are told that the ‘feeders tripped’. So that is my question that hopefully will get answered. Who are these feeders, what do they keep feeding on that makes them trip at the slightest excuse?

As far as the good mangoes are concerned, I must admit that without them, stay in Lahore during the summer would be very difficult. For the thirty plus years I lived and worked in the US, I never visited Pakistan during the mango season. And had to make do with locally available varieties that were often rather expensive.

Interestingly the world’s largest mango ‘museum happens to be in the US state of Florida. It seems that there was a time when mangoes were grown widely in the US and consumed by Americans rather than as happens now, mostly by South Asians and people from the West Indies.

And yes, I am entirely guilty of being an elitist snob when I talk of such trifles when millions of Pakistanis have no access to air-conditioning or the really good mangoes. And for them life goes on, and Covid-19 or not it will go on essentially not much changed.