“While the arrival of a child is always known to set in a joyous spirit to a household, 2021, with its pandemic, had other plans for our family. With the first wave subsiding and travel restrictions being relaxed subsequently, my sister found it the right time to fly back from the US with her newborn. This was around December and words can’t ever encompass the elation my parents felt upon seeing their grandson “Varun” for the first time!

That happiness however, didn’t seem to last long, especially with my mother developing symptoms of COVID19, a few days later. Starting there, it just took a week to spread to all us ladies and shockingly, even the little one. The virus you see, truly had its own ways of infecting even those households that’ve been following the safety protocols religiously!

So with four members at home under immense pain, the onus of supporting us alongside maintaining his own physical stability fell upon my dad. He was trying his best to coordinate everything right from our tests to food and medicines, especially since all of us had completely different symptoms.

In the meantime, what helped us majorly were the meal-preparation initiatives, organized by volunteers across the city and, of course, the support of a few trusted friends. I remember one even sending me a hot bowl of chicken soup, right on the day I was down with a massive cold. It alll truly did make a difference and aided us get through those painfully long afternoons, when all we sought was the sight of a hopeful tomorrow.

Now thankfully, these gestures by such goodhearted folks, did speed up the recovery process for us, ladies. Nevertheless, the wrath of the virus didn’t spare the household just as yet. Next in line was our father, who also tested positive two days later. Now while it’s one thing to watch our little baby wail in pain, it was even more heartbreaking to see our dad, the strongest pillar of our family in that state. It got us in a major fit of worry initially but we somehow managed to pull through and restore him back to normalcy!

And today, after a couple of weeks, when we are all back on our feet, it feels way different- almost like entering a completely new world with a varied perspective to life. One thing we realized strongly though is this aspect of understanding our bodies well. The Coronavirus hits each person differently, at their physically weakest areas, and therefore resorting to generic medication without proper medical intervention could spiral into bigger complications. What works is listening to each one’s body and replenishing it with adequate food and sleep! Atleast, that’s what helped all the three generations in my place and I couldn’t be more confident about it!”