11 Jul Love and Prayers Conquer All: Corona is just a Nanometer Nuisance

“The reports are all positive,” the words pierced the calm silence of the room, and hearts of hearts we all understood that life as we knew it, would not be the same anymore. For the first time, “positive” was somehow associated with something completely conflicting it’s very essence. And before I, as one of the youngest members of the extended family, could comprehend the gravity of the situation, I found myself with a mask over my face, in a different room and with a bottle of sanitiser in my hands.

The most trending google search right now- Coronavirus symptoms.
The most demanded products- sanitisers and masks.
The everyday news updates- a spike in COVID-19 victims.
The new fashion- PPE kits.
The new social service- community food distribution.
The new greeting style- Social Distancing.
The new word for disease- Pandemic.

My Papa, Daadi and Dadaji were diagnosed COVID positive on 27th June 2020. And trust me, we had taken every possible precaution on Earth. Milk packets sanitised: Check. Amazon grocery parcels washed: Check. Complete and total House-Arrest: Check. A life-long supply of sanitiser bottles and masks: Check. And yet, somehow, COVID decided to find it’s way into and invade the perfect family that we are.

As you might have noticed from my previous blog entries of that time, I was being all light-hearted, positive and rosy, just trying to paint a picture of normalcy and togetherness, when things were far from that phase. I think, I was trying to convince myself that “We shall Overcome”, when, just between you and me, life was really scary. Everything seemed so serious, that at times, it felt the walls were caving in on me. And the really cool and nerdy blogger you know of, sort of gave in to the kind of girl you find crying secretly in the bathroom sometimes.

Today, when all this over, I want to remember those times again, much against my wishes, as a tribute to all COVID survivors around the world, who have collectively fought so much more than a disease, they fought seclusion and isolation, they fought social eviction, they fought loneliness and depression, and they fought the poster on their front gate which said “Caution: COVID 19 Positive Patient”. Why Caution, huh? The same COVID 19 patient you’re talking about is a human being, and I don’t need to reiterate- Man is a Social Animal. Granted, you need to stop people from interacting with him, but why give people an excuse stare at our house? Why give people an excuse to send redundant and useless WhatsApp messages? Why tempt people to call up with a hundred precautions we should have followed, when we did a lot more than that?

The fact remains that behind all those face masks, behind those plastic gloves and behind that fake smile that had become a norm to placate all those people who used to Video Call, I knew that we were fighting between life and death, I knew that I was writing my blog entries to keep myself from reliving those moments when they took them to the hospital again, I knew that inside, we were all broken. And somewhere between all my Online Classes, when we used to call Daadi and Dadaji up in the hospital, those beeps of the oxygen machines and glucose drips kept reminding us of what they were going through.

Why I am writing this, at 11 o’ clock in the night, is because, I want you (yes, all of you reading this, right now), to realise that we have to fight the illness and not the ill. I know, what I have shared is just what my family has been through, but there are people out there who’ve suffered from a lot more, and yet they chose to live, when death might have seemed a much easier alternative. All we can do for them right now, is to share their pain. Just call them up, even once a week would make a difference, and tell them how brave they are, tell them that they are wanted and loved, tell them that you are waiting for them to get back home all hale and hearty again, tell them that you miss their smile, tell them that you’re in this with them and tell them that they are not alone, the world is with them.

So step up, join hands and lets fight Corona Virus and not the COVID-19 patient. It’s about time, we have to bring this pandemic to an end, let every COVID positive turn to COVID negative and Life Positive, and no matter how low you feel, remember “We shall Overcome”.

(The image credits go to COVID-19 comics: COVID-19 Myths, Debunked)