*{This literature work contains mostly fiction induced with some of my own experiences. I wrote this just for fun. The characters are fictional, if any character or incidents are similar to anyone. It is pure coincidental. It’s just a piece of literature. Hope you like it.}
My tiresome body was resting itself upon a bed on a floor and my eyes were locked onto the screen of my mobile phone which read typing. My soul was eager to read but my brain didn’t let me concede any high hopes. I blinked, my phone buzzed and I read the received the message from my cousin which he was typing this all time – “Yea it doesn’t makes sense at all.” All I could think was, “Wow! you took this whole time to reassure my own statement.” No wonder, my head warned about this, as I was expecting a little more humor to it but still I was in delight because one of my favorite cousins took his time to check on me.
The conversation ended pretty soon. I kept my phone to my side and thought this is a big deal, to contract a deadly virus and to be sent in an isolation. I am on empty stomach and I didn’t have any spare clothes for my fourteen days exile. Forget about thinking ahead of time, I had no lunch and it’s going to be evening soon. I’m completely worn out, if this is some kind of karma then I don’t deserve it. My eyes were staring into the space as if I had some absence seizures. With a thunderous bang on the door of our room following three similar sound from other rooms, I trembled in shock and I was brought back to my own senses. I and Nagesh bhaiya, who was sitting opposite to me, looked at each other in surprise. Before our body could react, Aamir sprinted like a bullet fired from a gun he rushed towards the door. He opened the door quickly and as his back was facing towards us we could only see him signaling three with his fingers. Confused, I thought why was he playing dumb charades at the doorstep?
Aamir turned towards Nagesh bhaiya and said something in hurry. Because of his green face mask and the haste, the words didn’t quite make sense to our ears. A figure handed out two disposable cups filled with tea and waited to hand the third cup. Nagesh bhaiya took one cup and handed it to me while taking other for himself. Aamir took the third tea cup and headed into back his room to place his mask safely. He came near us with the tea in his hand and explained the schedule to us like some tour guide explaining some tourist. Breakfast is served at 10’o clock followed by lunch at 1 p.m, around 4 it’s tea time and dinner will be served at 9. I quickly glanced outside the window and then towards my peachy pink tea. With the first sip from the cup of my tea I got the complete picture of my current scenario and that is we would never receive our meals on time and the food is going to be awful. What else was I expecting, I am in an isolation center not in a private resort. Again I thought, I really didn’t deserve this. I could have been home quarantined. We finished our peachy pink drink, which supposedly meant to be a tea and we each headed back to our corners.
I asked Nagesh bhaiya when was he taking his pills. So I could follow his routine and never miss my medications. He replied saying that he would take right now and took two HCQ, Hydroxychloroquine tablets as prescribed by authorities on day 1. Those meds really made me feel uneasy. Can’t blame Aamir returning to his bed very often.
Nagesh bhaiya and I, often had our interactions with each other because we shared the hall room and we had nothing else to do. I was really bad in conversations and my soft spoken voice didn’t make any positive impact either. Sometimes I felt sorry for him as he had nowhere else to go and I thought he was compelled to talk to an awkward guy like me. Nagesh bhaiya was a proud Hindu who worked in as a industrial security force but his memory regarding the subject matter of certain events of history was little bit off. Somewhere somewhat he reminded of me. We would discuss about Mahabharata and Ramayana. He explained me about Vedas and Upanishad. His teaching regarding the subject of Vedas was little vague but later I found that it couldn’t be described in short conversations as the topic itself is vast and he was kind enough to simplify it for me. For me it looked like some ancient Indian education system where the guru sat on an elevated seat while his pupil gained knowledge about Vedas sitting around him on the ground.
We got over with the QnA session, later he left the common hall room and went to bathroom to change his dress, to freshen up. He changed into his shorts and his t-shirt. I didn’t move a muscle and sat there again questioning my fate. My phone rang it. I picked up the call the call, it was my granny. It had been really long time since I had a heart to heart talk with her. I narrated my story and assured her my well-being in this isolation center to comfort her. We talked a bit longer and it made me feel good.
I was in joy to talk to all my folks but sad at the same time to realize that I had to pay the price of a poor health to reconnect with them. My aunt had warned me to not to have any negative thoughts as our thoughts and feelings can also tamper or boost our immunity. After all we are all just biochemical living mass with hormones, cells, etc.
Time passed by, it was 9 p.m and I had not even budged a little bit after having my tea. The hall room was occupied by my presence only. Nagesh bhaiya left the room to meet his fellow comrades who were in the adjacent room. There was a commotion outside and both of my roomies came inside the room, I never realized that the sleepy head had left his room. The drill continued with a loud knock on the door followed by gestures accounting the number of occupants in the room. The covid volunteers handed us our dinner. I was shocked to see the dinner, out of my expectations the dinner was neatly packed in a plastic container with a lid on it. It looked so royal. We collectively decided to eat after sometime. I got up to wash my feet and my face. As soon as I entered the bathroom and thought to bolt the bathroom door behind me. I noticed that there was no latch for the bathroom as well as the toilet door and the worst case was that both the door didn’t shut completely as it’s hinges made some spring reaction to slightly let it open up, enough for someone to peak in. Feeling not so royal anymore, huh? – was my instant thought.
We three took our packed meal and sat down with our legs folded. It was not predetermined or discussed we did it naturally like even though we three represented different religion we respected our Indian culture. We sat, ate together sharing our opinions and stories. Though the meal was awful but edible enough. I was really happy to share it with these two. I recited to myself from proverbs 16 verses 1, we make our plans but God has the last word. This whole time I made fuss about not being home quarantined but the truth would be that I was enjoying this. Lately, I had been feeling blue and out of the place. My home never provided me any mental peace nor I had any trusted good friends or acquaintances to turn to. According to Carl Jung “Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.” Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung’s work was influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, and religious studies.
It was midnight, both Nagesh and Aamir bhai went out for their after dinner walk. I too had joined them but I just went with them to take some pictures of the nearby landscape on my phone to send it to my parents.
Outside our hallroom, the common hallway passage, connecting to all other three occupied flat, was spacious and wide enough. There were stairs to the south, two elevators to our east and west. Our 1204 room was facing towards east and the common hallway passage led stairs to a large common window to our north where I witnessed the night view. I took the digital photos on my phone till my heart’s content.
The pictures in my phone didn’t look like we were in a locked down. Rather I saw a busy street with people roaming care free. Aamir justified stating that it is usually more crowded than this as he lived around about two blocks away from our current building. My parents called me and I reported to them everything while lying down on my designated bed. Nagesh bhaiya and Aamir returned to the room.
Nagesh bhaiya took out two blankets from his bag. One he used it as a bedsheet and the other he covered upon him to make himself comfy. Before he twirled his blanket on himself. He asked me politely if it’s okay to switch the lights off and with my acknowledgement he motioned towards the switch board as he switched off the lights to sleep. I was wearing the same dress from the morning till now. Knowing that I had worn this dress in the covid hospital and journeyed in an ambulance used for transportation of covid patients made me feel little icky. I really wished I had a spare dress and a blanket while lying down on my back. My phone beeped and it was a message quoting from the verse of Mathews- “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.” (Mathews 6:28). I smiled like a fool and replied to the text from Priya….
~ J George Thomas
(to be continued…)
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