This winter came with a warning: there would be a surge in the pandemic. It didn’t quite include the season’s usual suspects — fog being the most prime. For the past more than a month, Lahore’s minimum temperature has remained consistently below 10 degrees — the lowest recorded was 3 degrees Celsius — whereas the Met Office had only indicated westerly winds that were supposed to last a week or two. This winter is decidedly among the longer seasons the region has seen in many decades. But, as they say, life must go on. Come rain or shine.