Born and having most of my life in Singapore, India was just the place I got to visit during my holidays. Visiting friends and family, and getting special attention from grandparents meant that I only saw a “fun” India – lovely food, monuments and tourist spots. When we came back and settled here, the picture became multidimensional, with a lot of colour. There was the warmth of people – classmates offering help when they barely knew me, the feeling of “home”. There was also the evident poverty and inequality. Our large population meant that as a country we continuously faced challenges in having sufficient access to essential services like healthcare and education. It was also quite difficult for people to get out of poverty no matter how hard they worked – because resources were limited. These problems became more severe during the Covid epidemic.