Chapter 21: chapter 21

His grandson cried inconsolably hearing him and was about to exit from the chamber. Meanwhile, the doctors arrived and prescribed some medicines and injections to be brought hastily. My husband suffered from body aches and fever since last night. He covered his face properly with an orange sacred turban of his father lest he catches the infection but he was sure he had been hit by the virus already. It's a ritual in our Gurudwara that if any Sikh contributes his share for the fund he is rewarded with that saffron-coloured sacred cloth. My husband went inside to meet him. He instructed in a feverish voice, "Papa I am not feeling well. They are going to keep you under observation and carry out certain tests, till then I am going to rest in the car. Raghav and Pritam are here, you may send a word from them otherwise I'll return within an hour." "Acha beta, take care of your health", he spoke confidently. The next moment something struck his mind, he enquired," How is Raghav""He is alright ", he assured. "Please send him in", he requested. The virus had reduced me to a bony flesh. I was only chewing pills as a compulsion and eating less. My elder son also ate less and slept more. His friends had told him, "Are corona is nothing, one  needs to enjoy a seclusion of fourteen days, after which everything is hale and hearty, completely normal." He confided to me, "Mummy, the corona is more than a solitary confinement of fourteen days, it's not the normal flu, my friends are all wrong."I heard about being asymptomatic but ours was the truly symptomatic case.  I received tremendous chest pain the night before my father-in-law was transferred to a new hospital. I called my husband, he was attending to his father. He asked me to have patience and informed the medical provider about it. The provider rang up and enquired about my problems. I revealed my pain to him. After an hour, he sent his boy with all the medicines. He suggested inhaling a good quantity of steam. That night I got my period adding to my misery.Three steamers were there for us but the tremendous summer heat, the illness, and profuse sweating due to high doses of medicine compelled me to stay away from the steamers. The more I took steam, the more suffocation I felt. My sons also had an aversion toward electric steamers. It raised our coughing to severity. I was not getting the luxury of sound sleep throughout my illness. I was awakened by the sounds of dogs barking loudly in a shrill tone indicating some gloom ahead. Sometimes, I dreamt something very strange and woke up with a start. It seemed life was slipping out of my hands. I had seen death from close quarters. My body was becoming lighter with pain and fever. I leaned on the walls of my house to walk from my room to the bathroom. I had a fear that anything might happen to me all of a sudden. Once, I came out on my balcony to breathe in the fresh air. I saw two neighbourhood women staring upwards toward me and talking something in whispers while standing on the footsteps of the adjacent grocery shop. Their gesture revealed apparently that they were discussing my family and trying to avoid me by their stealthy stares. They didn't have the courtesy to enquire about our health as if the virus had wings and was going to fly over landing upon them. It was an inescapable truth that they were treating us as untouchables.