Day 1 of recording this is actually Day 6 of forced isolation. It took me 5 days to wrap my head around what is happening, and what I can do about it. Spoiler Alert – NOTHING! All I can do is try to sit in my room and minimize the risk of exposing myself, and in turn other people, to the deadly Coronavirus. Just a brief background – COVID19 or novel coronavirus is a resistant strain of virus which causes flu like symptoms, affecting the lungs and which currently has no cure. The virus has resulted in over thousands of reported death worldwide in less than 3 months. Countries around the world have closed their borders and are encouraging/mandating social distancing as a measure to slow down the spread of the virus. The virus is especially fatal to old people as the immune system of the body is not strong enough to handle the impact of the virus.
In such a scenario, my school has shut down and all the classes have been moved online till the end of the semester. Non essential businesses around have shut down. Marts are open from 8am to 8pm. Last week, the shelves of the marts were empty because of people panic buying. Stores had to resort to rationing of food and hygiene items to ensure that maximum number of people get the essential products. Food situation has normalized now, or so they say. However, hygiene products like kitchen towels, bath tissues, sanitizers, hand soap, disinfecting wipes, etc. are still scarce. Testing for COVID19 is also a luxury. Those who have come in contact with people who have traveled abroad are given a priority. Those developing symptoms but are not sure if they came in contact with someone who had traveled are advised to self-isolate, while the healthcare battles to ramp up the number of tests it can conduct per day.
Given this situation, I think it is a no-brainer to isolate myself. My family back home has been very kind to me so far and ensures that I get a call from someone, mostly my mom, twice a day. I think somewhere deep in their hearts they are aware that I am capable of going bonkers in this situation and are just checking in to see if I am there yet. Want to know a secret? I am!
I think that is enough for a background to begin with. More background in further posts as and when context is required. While I type this, I realize that I ended up spending 2 hours typing the preface and this and I haven’t proofed it yet. This is going to be interesting. Anyways, if you are reading this now, stay safe and maintain social distance. If you are reading this a while later, I hope you were safe when all of this was happening. I hope that I find the will to post again tomorrow.