HOW DID COVID PANDEMIC CHANGE MY LIFE FOR THE BETTER?
A huge difference has been made in everybody’s life after we came across this deadly & life-altering pandemic. Little did everybody know that we have to face such a harrowing time. Covid, being fatal to us physically, has also plagued our mental health.
Remembering the time when I saw the news of the corona outbreak in Wuhan, feels like a distant memory. Never in our wildest dream, did we imagine the agonizing time ahead of us. The time sure passed at lightning speed, but our life was left stagnant in March 2020.
But I am not here to discuss covid & its whereabouts. The news & the internet serves the purpose. I am a person who doesn’t like to dwell on negativity. Pandemic has seen a lot of death, sorrow & anguish. We were all at a point where we felt discontent with our life, on the verge of losing our sanity. Now life seems quite on the normal side. We have been adapted to the circumstances; that’s the rule of nature. At a certain point, we all reach break-even.
The title of the blog adverts for something positive; that is the bottom line of writing this. To point out the forward-looking aspect in everything possible. India, as people know it, has been bashful about the pandemic. It is shameful for me to say; that people here are so stubborn in their way. They struggle to believe something out of their conventions. The outbreak became severe for our densely populated country when the majority contradicted the seriousness of the situation. But eventually, they conceded by seeing the fearsome death & disasters. Losing loved ones, and being away from their family took a toll on everybody. We all would agree that our lives had been robotic, the same old routine followed every day. I believe the pandemic has given us a time out, where we were able to find ourselves again in a new way. It is to be believed that every 100 years, a plague follows to restore the balance of nature. No matter how fictional it sounds, history says the same!
Back to my story, the Pandemic hadn’t been worrisome for me. It was like a stay-cation for us. My father used to be always on office tours for as long as I can remember. The pandemic made it possible for him to spend time with us. The dilemma started later in early June when one of my aunts was admitted to the hospital for minor surgery. Even after following every intricate covid protocol, her report came positive for Sars-cov2. We live in a joint family of nine people, & the news shook us. We never thought we would experience covid in our home, as we were wary of our safety. June was a scary time; people changed in a split second.
Known people became unknown!
I could never forget the torment, & how we were mistreated for having to encounter covid. My aunt was isolated on the third floor, & our house was sealed from the outside after sanitizing. We got abandoned by the whole neighborhood as if we were criminals. People were not mature enough to understand the covid norms. The windows & doors near our house remained shut as if it would enter their houses by air. There were delivery-men in our locality who delivered milk, cooking gas & other necessities. They were warned not to deliver us, as others would boycott buying from them. My cousin stayed near & she took the responsibility to bring us the necessities to survive. Even she had to face humiliation by people stating that our family is putting everyone’s life in danger. We then realized, that people we knew so well, could be so cruel at times.
After the isolation period got over, we were treated as untouchables. We would walk by & everyone would move away to the side. It was somewhat funny that they used to make faces like they would die if exposed to the air as we breath in. But we somehow coped, knowing that we had each other. Soon the situation got on a loop & others kept getting covid. Death news of relatives came on. Even though we haven’t lost anyone close, the situation was mentally exhausting. One close call came when my cousin’s whole family got covid, except her. My aunt & uncle were doing fine after the medication, but my aunt’s sister-in-law who is very close to us got very sick. She is an acute patient of asthma. The nebulizer she often used wasn’t doing any good to her. She had to be admitted. But considering the situation of the hospitals at that time in India, we never thought she could be able to revive.
The day doctors said that she might not survive if not given proper medication in a hospital. We rushed her to admit not wasting much time. The look on her face when she was taken inside while we stayed outside the quarantined zone, was a gut-wrenching reality whether she would be back or not. Dead bodies sealed laid here & there. Patients with no bed were treated outside on the street. For 15 days, we only got to know about her from the staff who were uncooperative & unresponsive. By god’s grace, she came home after her reports were declared negative; but weaker than ever.
It is the healing process; we all need to take it seriously. We need to take good care of ourselves & people around us. Only then can we exit from a condition like this. Every aspect has a good & bad side. It is upon us how we can convert the bad into a good one. It is crucial for us to always hold on to a positive outlook on life. Life is full of negativity! But if we keep dwelling on that fact, we will never be able to move on & live a peaceful life.
In the last two years, people I thought to be my well-wishers, were back-biting me. It took me by surprise how people close to us can change drastically in unfavorable conditions, but it taught me a valuable lesson. The lesson is to never have any expectations from others & to never trust people around you wholeheartedly. Covid has taught me that family is our treasure, whom we can rely upon without even blinking an eye.
That they have my back & I have theirs…
