The Chaotic CoVid

23 June 2020, it was 10am, I was swimming inside the ocean with Percy Jackson, then I was flying in the air, sitting on a dragon with Harry Potter, then I was having a tea party with Annabeth, Hermione, and Willy Wonka. That's when I heard a voice from a distance; my mom was shouting,"Shaireen, Farheen wake up!"  I woke up, while rubbing my eyes I asked, "What happened? Why are you waking me up so early in the morning?"

When I finally opened my eyes, I saw the mom's tensed faces. Mom said, "Fuppi called, she said dada tested positive for CoVid-19, doctors are coming here to take the family members to quarantine facility, she told us to send all the children to their maternal home" (Fuppi - Father's sister, Dada- Father's father). I was fully awake now, I had many questions like, 'where did dada catch coronavirus?','where is dad?' but before I could ask anything, I was already on the road with my sister, Farheen trying to catch an auto-rickshaw to go to my nani's house, with a carry bag that only had 2 pairs of clothes for each one of us. (Nani- Mother's mother) 

I live in a joint family, 20 people live in my house. Everyone was panicking, and everything happened so fast before you judge me for running away from home and being an irresponsible citizen. Let me tell you this, I hadn't had any contact with my dada in the last 3weeks. And there was no way dada could get covid-19, he never got out of house. 2 days before this chaos, dada just got an epilepsy attack, due to which he was taken to hospital, and he had absolutely no symptoms of coronavirus. 

I live in Ghatkopar east, my maternal home is in Ghatkopar west, it was a short ride. Reaching nani's home, everyone was surprised to see us. They were asking so many questions. That was the one time I felt lucky to be a middle child, all the questions were answered by my sister. Then we stayed there listening to my nani going on and on about how all the hospitals are faking corona results, and killing people in name is corona. And then nani was so tensed and angry about my mom not coming with us, she was blaming my father for not sending my mom.

After several attempts to contact my mom, we finally got connected and she was crying, she was really scared. My mom informed us that she with 4 other family members have been taken to a quarantine facility in Azad Nagar. The quarantine facility was 10 minutes walk from nani's home. My sister and me along with two other cousins, Adnan and Amaan, got on the bike in order to reach the quarantine facility before my mom's bus. We were late, we couldn't meet my mom. We went back home, I had so many questions, like 'where is dad?',' will dada be ok?' I got no answers until later that day. Dad was in the hospital when the bus came to pick up everyone, so my dad was left behind and now he was told to stay quarantined inside the house, but that wasn't possible. Another problem was waiting back home. 

Dada was in a private hospital, dad had already paid Rs.1lakh for two days he was there, but that hospital asked for Rs.1lakh more just to start corona treatment. This is a lower middle class family, the shop has been closed for the last 3 months, dad is doing random business just to feed us everyday. That Rs.1Lakh, he paid by selling the last memory of his mom, a necklace. There was no way we could afford that medical bill. It was 9pm, dada was in an ambulance with fuppi, they had no hospital to go in. Dad and Sagar, my sister's best friend, are on a bike trying to find a hospital. They finally found a hospital with Sagar's connection. When they went to the hospital to admit dada, they realized Sagar had talked to the doctor about a normal ward, but dada needed an ICU. Everyone got really angry on Sagar. He was just trying to help.

In all this chaos, I was at my nani's house, my sister was continuously on the phone. We both were just waiting for new information about what's happening there. The day seems like it will never end. Then mamu called a doctor from his friend circle. (Mamu- Mother's brother) Dad brought the ambulance to that doctor's hospital. The trouble didn't end here. The doctor said that he can't admit dada, because there is no unoccupied ICU, and dada's situation is serious, he really needed ICU. The doctor sent a picture of dada on mamu's phone. My sister saw that and started crying, I was trying to calm her down, everyone was trying to calm her down. It is 12am now, my dada was still in the ambulance, they had nowhere to go. At last Sagar, my sister's friend, checked on the almighty internet and found a hospital that takes a coronavirus patient and had an ICU. AT 2am in the morning my dad brought the ambulance to that hospital and admitted dada. It was a private hospital but charged less because the government had reserved a part of it for CoVid  patients.

Here, lying on the bed both my sister and me couldn't sleep that day. My sister was still wishing for all these to just be a nightmare. Finally the dreadful day was over.