Each sunrise brings this thought that how blatantly can acalamity result in exploitation. In every society of the globe, individuals areblaming each other or the system rather than trying to become responsible andeschewing blaming at this critical juncture at least. When a person dives deepinto inner thoughts, it dawns upon them that the soul has a lot to contributein surviving this inflicted condition, the remedy may be introspective thatlies within us, within our behaviour or within our society. It is foolish toexpect positivity from all ends, but some, like a handful of seeds sowing intoour future will provide food to the whole community. We will all face somethingthat will weigh us down and at the same time we may come across a multitude tolaugh at us. So we should strive to strike a balance between positivity andnegativity if we are to overcome this disaster. Our faith should not be shakenand we should strive right until the end of it. Let us not lose hope and let’snot panic, but instead love and support each other.
Some say that it’s empathy which makes us humans. There’s nobetter time to exhibit empathy when all of humanity has been afflicted by apandemic. It is comprehensible for students coming into the valleyinternationally that quarantine is needed in these testing times even though itamounts to torture for parents and children alike. It is in fact a measure toprotect oneself from a greater torture that could afflict the entire family.But the question arises that what does self isolation mean, in the real sense?Does it mean forcing people to share a single room? Like shepherding folks intocorners like sheep with no heating system and where they are ruthlesslymanhandled by security personnel? In these testing times, students are asked tostay away from family and then at the same time, asked to clean their roomsthemselves. There is no rest and no respite for the weary. If quarantine is anecessity, then it should be taken care of as is directed by the guidelines ofWHO. The administration should at least know the basic ethics of it. What isthe point of getting quarantined if at the end of the day it’s only going toincrease the possibility of catching diseases from one another? And then, thefood served is stale and filthy.
One week has passed and here I am, languishing in a darkcorner with friends and fellow students. We are counting days, second by seconduntil we see the dawn of the fourteenth day. We are braving challenges andhardships here. They say “home is where the heart is” but it feels sodifferent here in the quarantine facility because our hearts reside at homewith our families. Although the distance is not too far, it does not matter ifit were a meagre ten steps or a thousand kilometers away from home: the resultof separation is the same to us. Two weeks ago, I was supposed to appear for myfinal examinations in which the main focus of the exam was the effect of Covid’19 on humanity and ways to counter it, but the Lord’s plans direct our pathsand little did I know that I would be quarantined!
On March 20th, Providence brought me back to my hometownafter being away from it for the past one year. I expected to receive a warmembrace from my family but instead the authorities ordered to keep us inquarantine. I would have never imagined that I would be waving to my familythrough the window panes of a cold metal bus. It was heart wrenching. We wereswiftly transported to designated housing, where they had prearranged 17 bedsin a single hall due to space constraints. It dawned upon me that this is notwhat quarantine is supposed to be. After many protests our group managed toconvince the leaders to assign us individual quarantine quarters. And as thedays passed, we just waved our hands from the window panes to our families whocame to visit us, bringing food that made us more eager to return to ourfamily. But unfortunately this is an apparent punishment of God for our sinsthat we and the whole world is suffering.
The word pandemic was just something we had only read aboutin books. Never in a million years could we have imagined that this would besomething we might face in our lifetime.
These are such melancholic moments we are living, but wemust always remember that life presents different seasons and this difficultseason will pass and a new season of life will blossom and we will be strongeron the other side of this as we stand together. Let us together make the worldsafe again by staying at home.
Baasit Mohammad is medical student in one of the medical colleges in Bangladesh. At the time we recieved this piece from him he was quarantined at Rajbagh.