O.M.: The Indian Science Fiction Anthology

The Coronavirus Pandemic was the single biggest battle of humanity against the unseen. Whenever the world has ever needed answers to some prominent questions, it has either turned to history or the imagination of philosophers, scientists and also the fictionists. Science Fiction, as a genre, aims to unlock the limitations created by the 'known' and the 'real', and explore the plausible with a backdrop of experience and observation. Few of the most revered Indian Science-Fictionists have created their own renditions of the Covid-19 story of India, predicting the best-cases, worst-cases as well as other scenarios that we could have had to face. The essence of these stories is in 'how we would have arrived at that stage and what we would have done before and after it. The more we got to learn about the virus, the less we seemed to know about the beings of the Universe as well as our own future. And with such a rising uncertainty, all we could do was hope for the best and be prepared for the worst. -RISHABH DUBEY 'KRIDIOUS