The Quarantine Lessons from the author who became a victim

In my last post, I had shared my experience of being a coronavirus victim for more than 3 weeks. A lot of readers wrote back thanking me for sharing my experience. The story was not so much about the quarantine lessons but more a narration of how I spent the days in quarantine. 24  days in quarantine and I learned a few lessons that I thought of sharing with you all.

Quarantine is like a comma in your journey of life. There is a pause in your life. For the person in quarantine, the pause is within the four walls of the room and for the family, it’s within the boundaries of the home. Both suffer the mental agony of getting restricted by boundaries.

The lessons start the day your house gets quarantine

It starts the day you test positive for coronavirus and get quarantine in a room. The lab reports the same to the municipal corporation and the next day there is a Covid house poster pasted outside your entrance. The outside world becomes out of bounds for you and your family. Your family has become a pariah for society.

The grocery, vegetables, eggs, milk, and bread everything gets delivered at the entrance. One of the family members opens the door at 45 degrees and pull the goods inside as if trying to block the virus from escaping in the outside world.

The RWA issues a notification to the resident members though not declaring the house number. There is a strong undercurrent flowing amongst the members. Which house number and which lane? The Association bound by the guidelines issued by the authorities does not reveal the house number but the guesswork game is on.

On the other hand, the coronavirus patient gets quarantined in a room and is not supposed to step out. He has to keep his utensils in the room and wash them daily after the meals. Along with it, he gets Surf and Pril to wash clothes as well as the utensils. One of the quarantine lessons is that anything that enters the room can’t leave. So whether it’s the thermometer or the blanket, they all get quarantined along with you.

The Quarantine lessons on how to overcome the boredom

While the virus takes its toll on your physical health, the boredom takes a toll on your mental health. The initial few days are about physical suffering like fever, cough, or loss of smell and taste. Once the symptoms subside and you become active boredom creeps into your life. You still can’t get out of the room as the protocol says a minimum of 14 days (in my case it got stretched to 24 days as I tested positive again on the 17^th day).

The Sound of Music

The 2nd week onwards the fever subsides and a feeling of loneliness sets in. The reason is the lack of any conversation with the family members in the room. To make any conversation you can stand at the door and talk to them. I used to get updated on what is happening in the social circle speaking 2-3 times in a day from the door. But what I was missing was a face to face conversation with them. You realise that gossip is important in life as any other conversation.

I decided to replace the lack of conversation with music that made my room come alive. I got my Bose speaker in the room and used to play Bhajans and Chopai in the morning for half an hour. This was followed by Kishore and Lata or Asha songs of the ’70s and ’80s. The evening time in a quarantine room is the depressing part of the day. I used to overcome this by listening to Jagjit Singh Gazals while writing a story on my blog.

Reading keeps your mind occupied.

It’s difficult to spend the entire day watching TV. But how much TV can you watch? The plot of all romantic stories or suspense thrillers looks similar with slight variation. Also, too much time spent on TV strains your eyes. Realising this I decided to devote at least a couple of hours on reading. This was divided into 2-3 installments.

The pre-breakfast slot was for the newspaper, the pre-lunch session was reading the online edition of the Economist. In between, I would also read the news on India-China face-off or SSR suicide mystery on my Android phone courtesy Google. The last slot for reading was before retiring for sleep.

People in quarantine can subscribe to the online edition of newspapers and magazines or order their favourite novel on one of the e-commerce sites.

Spending time with the idiot box

To all people who are in quarantine, I am assuming that you have the idiot box in your room. This is the first time in life that you have got the entire room to yourself. Watch all the movies you missed while your family watched it in your absence. Ask your friends for some recommendations.

Keep the morning slot for something that makes you smile as this brightens your mood for the rest of the day. I used to watch The Big bang Theory on Netflix for at least 30-40 minutes while having my breakfast. The series is about 4 young scientists with one of them being a total nerd. Life changes for them when they get a beautiful neighbor who has no idea of science.

Get hooked onto a series on any of the streaming channels like Netflix, Hotstar, or Amazon Prime. Keep it for your afternoon slot. Evening slots can be for watching a movie.

Missing the morning walk

A room of 150 square feet constraints your movements and as a result you miss the morning walks, the chirping of the birds, and the clear blue skies. Lack of physical exercise not only makes you dull but also you have a problem with sleeping at night.

I decided to do some household chores to keep myself busy as well to stretch my body. I would sweep the room in the morning followed by dusting. Evenings were washing clothes every alternate day. Avoid doing such chores if you are feeling weak but once you have developed strength you can start it.

The result was that I could go to sleep by 10.30-11 am.

Keep up the morale of your family

An important Quarantine lesson was to also lift the morale of the family. Every morning I saw my wife peeping from the curtains to check if I was ready to have bed tea. She would check on the menu for lunch and dinner and make my favourite vegetable. My son will ask if I would like to have something special in breakfast like poached eggs or a garlic toast.

I also made it a point to lift their morale. On days I will ask my spouse to make one of my favourite dish at lunch or dinner. I would ask for my son’s suggestion on what show to watch on Netflix. It was an indication to them that I was on my recovery path. Seeing me smiling or cracking a joke brought a smile on their faces.

The life of all family members is intertwined and each one acts as a support for the other. It is this strength that has enabled the room quarantined experiment to be so successful with thousands recovering successfully.

You can read more such stories on my blog. Click on the following link:

The Quarantine story of the author infected by the coronavirus

Learn more about Coronavirus on the WHO site:

https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1