“It is late. We are deep in an emergency. But it is not too late, because the emergency is not over. The outcome is not decided. We are deciding it now. The longer we wait to act, the more limited the options, but scientists tell us there are good options and great urgency to embrace them while we can. […] An emergency can involve terrible loss or it can bring about magnificent transformation, and, while it’s unfolding, the outcome can be impossible to foresee. Or it can depend on what you and we do.”

We’re just two ‘Common Folks’ straight out of R.K. Laxman’s cartoons—navigating life’s ups and downs with a blend of curiosity, grit, and a good dose of humor. Dreamers? Absolutely. But we’re also the kind of dreamers who aren’t afraid to get our hands dirty in the wonderfully unpredictable world of public health. Though our paths into medicine were separated by a mere decade—one of us has spent over 30 years practicing public health in every possible role, while the other is a fresh-faced 10-year veteran, visualizing and documenting the intricate dance between humanity and medicine—our stories are intertwined by a shared purpose.

We’ve sweated through blistering heatwaves and shivered in the biting cold, all in the name of fieldwork. It wasn’t just the two of us either; we watched health workers and entire communities face the same elements, battling through the very weather patterns that seem to have a personal vendetta against human comfort. Yet through it all, we’ve witnessed resilience, humor, and the undeniable connection between climate and health unfold before our eyes.

So here we are—two ordinary people, wandering through the extraordinary paths of human evolution, with stories to tell and lessons still being learned. If there’s one thing we’ve discovered, it’s that while the weather might be unpredictable, so are we. Adaptation is the name of the game. Stick around—you might just see what we mean.

– Raj Shankar and Kaushik