How a swanky Mumbai cultural venue was transformed into a contact-less facility to combat coronavirus.

Two months ago, May 2, Major Anuj Sood made the supreme sacrifice for the motherland in a hostage-rescue mission in J&K. As his grieving family grapples with their immense loss, they graciously share memories of the young major -- a husband, brother and son -- whose only calling was the fauj.

'The Ladakh Scouts are a fantastic mountain troops suited to this terrain.' 'Other troops have to first get acclimatised, but these men are tough mountain people.'

'It could have moved from the use of small arms to artillery fire.' 'Anything could have happened like what happens on the LoC.'

'How and if India retaliates will go a long way toward determining the trajectory of this crisis.'

'Pakistan has robust incentive to turn heat on LoC.'

'It is a miracle how a soldier handles the lack of oxygen, stands his post and also confronts the Chinese at 14,000 feet where survival itself is a challenge.'

'To deal with a bully, you have to deal from a position of strength, not a position of weakness.'

'I am ashamed we are dealing with such adversaries.'

'They have done in Eastern Ladakh what we did in Dokalam in 2017.'

'India and China have the wise and sage leadership to steer this complex relationship in the coming decades.'

'At a time when the economy is depressed, a pandemic is raging, and the Chinese are making noises on the border, the NRC could be resuscitated.'

'Right now, politics is operating in a state of suspended animation. That works to Modi's advantage.'

Major Suman Gawani, who served as a UN Peacekeeper in South Sudan, is the first Indian to receive the UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award. 'On seeing the Indian flag on my uniform,' she says,' the locals would get very excited and say, 'Hindi, Hindi'.'

'The Chinese have been moving in step by step; inch by inch for the last 40 years.'

'We are not going to be threatened by China neither are we going to threaten China.'

'India is not going to accept whatever the Chinese say. That is not going to happen.'

'We will not accept these misadventures by the Chinese.'

'The safety regulations drastically reduce the chances of contracting the virus on a two-hour flight.'

'Many are coming hungry and thirsty.' 'Some told us they were stopped from filling water at roadside village handpumps because villagers told them 'tum Carona ho'.'

'Jawans are not rich and their families need succour in their time of loss.'

'Yet, in J&K even if you are not involved in active combat, you can come under enemy fire.' 'However young a soldier is, he is not immune to action.' 'He may face challenges during the course of discharging his military duties.'

'A tiger knows his territory in and out.' 'A tiger demarcates his terrain and never lets anyone enter.' 'Similarly, Ashu knew the trees, houses, rivers and rocks of the Rajwar jungles.' 'He didn't allow any militant to come into his territory.'

'I am not scared of corona, I am sure God is protecting us.'

Major Anuj Sood, scholar and daredevil soldier, had finished his Kashmir tenure and would have been home had COVID-19 not come in the way. He did not live to be old enough, but he lived the soldier's life to the fullest, reveals Archana Masih/Rediff.com.

'After days of waiting in uncertainty and anguish, I was finally going home.'

'Different people resonated with different films of his, but beneath all of that was his unique ability to capture the human spirit in an intimate and honest way.'

'We got so many calls after the attack.' 'Loved ones told us forget all this, nothing was more valuable than our lives.' 'But we said, 'No, this wasn't the way forward -- the people, society, the country needs us at this time.'

'Everybody should be given rations. Nobody should be excluded.' 'Without an income, the present ration quota is not enough.' They should increase it so that one person can eat adequately for a month.'

'I don't think I can go back home before the lockdown is lifted because Nitishji has said he will not allow students from Kota to return.'

'The government and railways are looking after us, but I just want to get home.'

'We know there will be an end to this epidemic temporarily.' 'We probably should get a couple of years break before it comes again.'

COVID-19

'Villages are much better prepared than towns as far as COVID-19 is concerned.'

'I set out really early because it gets very hot.' 'The soles of my feet burn by the time I have finished going house to house on foot.'

'Safest' looks like a phone booth, but is a state-of-the-art mobile COVID-19 testing lab.

'Around April 1-2, both states had similar number of cases, around 300.' 'The number of deaths in Kerala were 2 and in Maharashtra around 10. But the two graphs have diverged after that.'

'... so that the hospitals do not get overwhelmed. We have to avoid it at all costs.'

'Scientists around the world are focused on very quickly doing work to help us better understand what we are facing.' 'I am inspired by what scientists have found in such a short amount of time since the virus emerged.'

'Unless the State is a welfare State, unless the State has more welfare measures, it will not be able to deal with these kind of sudden situations.'