Kolkata, one of the most densely-populated cities in India, has been hit hard by countrys second Covid-19 wave. Stories of the surge have been distressing - people gasping to stay alive as they wait for critical care beds and treatment; desperate families scrambling for everything from oxygen cylinders to a doctors appointment; mass funeral pyres and parking lots turning into crematoriums to accommodate the rising number of dead. Controlling the spread of a highly transmissible virus such as Covid is much more difficult in a country as densely populated as India, and the effects have been devastating.