My rendezvous with Corona Virus
By Nikita Joshi
As we welcome this new year with a lot of resolutions, aspirations, and hope, sometimes the ghost of the past doesn’t leave you behind. The ghost is not even the direct cause of your actions, still, you do everything to not get encountered by him! Because the ghost doesn’t care whose actions led to his existence, he just came to exist and the consequences shall be suffered by all. He does not discriminate. At least he comes from the family of values but since the ghost is obviously a deadly virus it is life-threatening for our species.
More than two years have passed, after worldwide lockdowns, weekend curfews, heavy fines, tremendous testing, worldwide vaccination drives, and whatnot, the virus has become a constant companion. You either live with it or die from it and the latter is not your choice, it depends on what relationship it builds once it’s inside your body and how your body reacts to it. Every person is different so the effect is different and so is the cause. Therefore, now is the stage where we like it or not but we are stuck with the ghost.
Knowing the obvious after spending a short winter break at home despite Corona being at its peak again, I was merrily going to college every day. Maybe I was more than happy because these days I am getting more opportunities to explore my field of interest.
But soon my college too got shut again.
The next thing I knew I developed symptoms. But the symptoms were sore throat and fever. I thought of it as tonsillitis, the disease I regularly encounter whenever I drink something cold. I knew it would go away. After 2 days I finally took antibiotics for tonsillitis and it did go away the next day. My throat was clear but my fever was not. Meanwhile, I got to know a few people whom I may have interacted with in the past few days, tested positive for coronavirus.
That was my clue to get myself tested too as it may not be just tonsillitis or common flu.
Yesterday I got myself tested and today I encountered the ghost too as my report came positive.
Fever which comes and goes away, very little wet cough, chest congestion emerged as new symptoms clearly. My doctor prescribed me light medications according to my symptoms, advised me to live in isolation until the report comes negative and have rest.
I have been fully vaccinated, but I still caught the virus (for the first time). My friends who caught the virus last summer, recovered from it, got themselves jabbed with both doses, too caught the virus again. Now our exams are around the corner and we are lying in our beds, isolated with our chests stuck into our mouths.
I think from my experience, we have to accept this virus and the norms this virus wants us to follow, be it frequent handwashing on regular basis, sanitizing, keeping places neat and clean, wearing a mask when not well etc. why we only tend to follow the safety measures when a pandemic is going on or when it is at its peak. We have to understand that we have to accept these changes for life, not just when the wave is at its peak.
We have to accept that this is the new normal.
And coronavirus is not the ghost of the past but instead, it is the ghost of the present.
(The writer is a student of Bachelor of Physiotherapy, 7th Semester at Faculty of Physiotherapy, SGT University, Gurugram)
