Written by, April 26 -- Monalisa Changkija

Life has a way of upending human plans, dreams, and schemes. Never had we imagined the war in West Asia, much less its impact on every nook and cranny of the globe. And the war isn't even over, although military operations on land have stopped. But for how long, we cannot predict. So much is actually out of our control. Take, for instance, COVID-19, which changed us and the world in numerous ways. We may have forgotten the epidemic, but we will always live with the changes it wrought. The war in West Asia too has already started the process of change, and we have started living with it.

The most palpable effect is the scarcity of cooking gas and soaring prices. Perhaps it is not so noticeable i...