It was just another lethargic Saturday afternoon. I was fiddling with my phone. On the other end of the sofa, my wife was occupied with similar activity. The TV screen in front of us was playing random youtube videos. We had started with the big screen watching something together of common interest, but unknowingly shifted to smaller ones with individual interest. It was pretty evident the later was much more engaging. My twitter feeds was getting refreshed. But before it could load the refreshed feeds, the screen flashed with 'Fiki calling.' Fiki, my sister. It was almost 4:00PM here. I did my calculation in head, 2:30 AM in India. 'Why she is calling me at this hour, she never does that'. My heart skipped a bit. I picked up the call. Her rather calm voice - 'Dada, Taanish (my youngest nephew) and his father, both are having very high fever. Its not coming down from 105 C. I don't know what to do.'
Fiki lives with her husband and two sons in the suburbs of Kolkata. My brother in law is the principal of a residential sports school. They have their residence inside the campus itself. But because of the lockdown, they have moved to their (brother in law's) parental home, which is a small village in central Bengal.
She asked me - 'Shall I wash their heads with cold water?' I was in shock, but wanted to show my calmness - 'Its 105?, when did you give paracetamol?'
- 'They took it few hours back, seems its not working. I am waiting for few more hours to pass to give them one more dose.'
I heard my older nephew 'Ayan' in his soft but crumbling voice - 'Mamoni dekho na, papa kemon kanpche. Ebaar ki hobe?' (Mom, see how father is shivering, what will happen now?)
My siter replied - 'Kichu hobe na papa, sob thik hoye jabe.' (Nothing will hapen, Everything will be fine.)
I asked her - 'How far is the hospital from here?'
- 'I don't know, and who will take us there now? I don't even know how to drive.'
Now she was loosing her calm. Started chocking.
I said wait, let me call Shrikant (my school friend, he is a doctor in India).
Luckily Shrikant picked the call even in that odd hour. He asked, is everything fine? I said wait let me add Fiki to the line.
He listened everything, 1st thing he did was to calm her down, he said - 'Don't worry. It could be food poisoning as well, as he is having pain in stomach and vomiting tendency.' He asked her to bring the medicine box that she had, and to search few medicines. We were in luck, she had most of the medicines in one form or the other. Starting from antibiotics to high dose of paracetamol to anti-acids.
Next morning, they went to nearest clinic and got themselves tested for covid. Found out everyone one of them (her husband, both of her sons and her father-in-law and mother-in-law) were covid positive. Totally unaware on how to deal the situation. Other than Fiki, everyone one was so weak and fragile. She had mild fever as well, but everyone one else, they were deteriorating very fast.
Somehow, she shifted her father-in-law and mother-in-law to the nearest hospital and started taking care of rest of them. She noticed the maids for cooking and cleaning and asked them not to come till everyone gets well.
As it was a small village, there were no online deliveries of groceries and food available. But there were few relatives around, who started delivering food to them.
Next few weeks were so tough, I could not talk to her for long. She would start sobbing. I assume we can not train our minds not to think the worst, when it comes about the apprehension of our closest. I was feeling so helpless.
With the grace of Almighty, with time, all of them have recovered or still recovering. And life seemed to be back to mundane chores.
Today when I got the message from one of my other friend, Pintu (Me, Srikant and Pintu were like 3 musketeers in the school. Both of them went to pursue their career in medicine and I tried my luck with engineering) - 'I just talked to Fiki, her husband's sugar level is fine now', I was kind of taken aback to last few weeks.
I was getting similar messages everyday from both of them how they have talked to my sister and the updates.
In these tough times many of us may have had similar situations.
I know few of us have lost our near and dear ones.
And more than often ours eyes might have gone wet.
This pandemic has done a lot of harm, but it made us realize:
How trivial yet so blessed we are to be surrounded by so many beautiful people, whom we can call friends.
It has invoked the compassion to a new level.
It has made us cherish the present.
It has made us value the people around.
More than ever, I found the importance of listening to someone.
More than ever, I realized, it's not that important to be somewhere in person, you can be with someone from far across the world.
Asking how are they feeling, getting to know about their hardships, joining in the happiness of their gradual recovery, boosting someone's spirit. It made me feel connected.
My this friendship's day is dedicated to all my friends and family who were there to listen to me, shared my worries and fears, cheered my sadness and bolstered my happiness.
May be you were not near, but you were always there.
Happy Friendships Day
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