Hey autodidact, I am Mihir, 15 years old, I’ve been living in Delhi for a good 5-6 years. I study at St. Angels School, Delhi. My hobbies include dancing, singing and music and I suppose that’s a good introduction to start with, so let’s dive in!
This story is about how Covid affected me and my family back in January 2021. Around November-December of 2020, the cases of the novel disease had started decreasing in Delhi and everybody had started getting really casual about the disease. I don’t know if it is alright to say this but when you start seeing people around you hanging out in public places, kids playing in parks, and their parents’ never-ending chatting, you start feeling the urge to go out.
Even if we had critiqued people for going out in these times, many of us also gave up on wearing a mask and being very strict with the guidelines. It’s not even a matter of a week and you’re coming home and procrastinating about washing those hands.
My maternal granny had been diagnosed with cancer in December 2020. My mom had been getting really depressed around this time because she’s really close with her mom and has never spent a day without talking to her at least an hour a day. She had constantly been thinking about visiting her for obvious reasons, even though I and my sister had been telling my mom not to go but seeing someone being so down you end up seeing yourself in their shoes and let them do what they want.
So my mom visited her, not knowing that my uncle had been fighting covid. I knew something was about to come up, I just had a bad gut feeling.
When she had come back from there she seemed sadder, leaving me and my sister feeling as if we had done wrong by letting her go. Weeks went by and this awkward aura started surrounding our home, I had been feeling colder than ever. I had felt the same fever during August time and had tested negative. This time I hadn’t told anyone, not even my sister, with whom I am really close it seems.
Anyways, on January 16, 2021, my mom and my dad were going to celebrate their 25th marriage anniversary. My mom was planning the event, her outfit, sending invitations to her friends and a few relatives, everything almost seemed alright, but you know the gut feeling pops up out of nowhere. My 9th-grade exams were approaching. Side thought I didn’t really study online or by myself, for the whole year, I had been procrastinating, watching youtube, web series, and more stuff just to stop the guilt of missing classes in an online institute my parents had enrolled me to come to my mind.
On 16th, my mom became really sick, so she had to cancel the plans. We took her and my covid test, but later in the night she became really sick, so we had to admit her to the hospital. My sister went with my mom to the hospital and me and my dad were left in the home.
Like any other night, I was bingeing on youtube. At this point, it seems like I am trying to degrade Youtube as an addicting app. Trust me it is, and I am not asking the government to ban it, just a few restrictions will do.
The next day morning my mom had been feeling better. I and my sister could not be anymore happier but I had tested positive, unfortunately, then come the calls from the relatives asking about our health, and if we are fine. Pretty much the same questions from everyone.
I hate this performative care and show-off a lot because later on, my mom told me that they were the same relatives who blamed my mom for the worsening of my dad’s health. It feels so frustrating when people who don’t even live with you and start forming such irrelevant gossips that too while knowing their situation.
But coming to my dad, I don’t want to talk a lot about him because he’s the person who’s the most personal to me besides my sister, to put it mildly, I have major daddy issues due to which I had to be admitted along with him. He was assigned a bed in another room having more patients than mine because his case was more serious than mine.
In there, at the start I felt really lonely to a point I had to hide my face with a mask, you can imagine the number of tears I was shedding at that point, then I talked with my mom, cried a little more, and then slept for really long. The hospital’s toilets were really dirty and I was acting really privileged with the people in there, I know it’s wrong and I am not going to defend myself, what’s wrong will always be wrong.
Four days went by, I was discharged from the hospital and so was my dad. When we reached home, it felt a little more suffocating at first, to be honest, but never mind it got better. Me, my mom, sister, and dad started joking about all those ridiculous comments by relatives plus how our experience was with the novel Coronavirus together and individually. I love that my parents and my sister had brought me up in a way that we spend so much of our time together. We also have our privacy terms and conditions but almost no one keeps a secret in the home except me and I am 15 so that’s pretty self-explanatory.
Coming back to this day and leaving the nostalgia behind, my parents and my sister have been vaccinated. They are healthy, so am I. I remember how I and my friends used to crack jokes on the steps taken by our prime minister but I guess our prime minister was right when he asked us to lit candles and turn off all the electrical appliances or when he asked us to bang utensils and to ring bells because covid is more than just a disease.
After all, it had become more like a topic to chat endlessly about, and honestly, I and my family were really lucky because had we been infected around March-April, then we would have had to arrange Oxygen tanks and beds and it would have been more of a mess and difficult.
Anyways that was mine and my family’s experience with Covid and I hope this story made you sympathize with people who have to leave their home for some issues, be them personal or professional, and perhaps also comprehend that we all have been asked to stay at home so we will have to because now 1 more disease has come up: Delta Plus variant.
For any feedback, please feel free to write!
mihirsingh2001.13@gmail.com
So I would like to conclude that tough times come but they also fade. It’s all just a matter of time so just be patient and take care of your family and friends. And if you are curious about how my exams went, let’s just say sometimes you don’t give your best but 10th is going well, all my internals have gone well and let’s just hope for the best and best of luck for your exams and dreams.
Thanks a lot for reading, it means a lot!