A Day on Earth – Quarantine Edition by Rajee Kanagavel

Mon, May 25, 2020

Read in 7 minutes

Washington DC Hub, USA Originally from Chennai, India

Vancouver, Canada 5.00 AM

Although Mahdi had been trained well to function in the face of uncertainty, things have been particularly challenging these past few days. The schedules have been changing every day and his COVID-19 unit has run out of ventilators. He has started to appreciate late night/early morning shifts when most of the patients are asleep. Two more hours to go – then he will return to his residence co-located at the hospital after his shift and talk to his father in Iran and wife over the phone. It’s been two weeks since he moved away from his wife and their 18-month-old son, Altaaf, who had suffered a respiratory illness after birth. Over the weekend, he drove about three hours to see him through a glass door. They now usually FaceTime to do bedtime routines with Altaaf listening to stories more keenly and saying more words than ever before. As Mahdi checks a patient’s vital signs, the patient is awake and whispers, mustering all her energy, “thank you, doctor”.

New York, USA 8.00 AM

Across the country and around the world, non-essential businesses, workplaces and schools closed, and public gatherings prohibited. All the cancelled events were just another news story to Darren until a week ago when his own graduation ceremony cancellation was officially announced. Soon after, he received his flight cancellation email and now had to defend his Master thesis via Zoom. Today was the day he was supposed to fly to South Africa, which he had been planning for nearly a year with his friends. He woke up to his hostel reservation cancellation. “My entire morning is ruined,” Darren thought, falling into a deep dark vortex of emotions tinged with a bit of melancholy and a good measure of rage. A week full of workouts, video games, and Netflix binges passed – yet he is baffled with what to do with this newly found luxury – time.

Belo Horizonte, Brazil 9.00 AM

In spite of her predilection for her quaint childhood home, Ana feels a sudden pang of anxiety about her lost job and uncertain future while on her couch, the place where she mostly lives these days until bedtime. Ana had gradually adapted to the new normal – finding time to play piano and connect with her parents. In São Paulo, though, she’d had a busy routine with her dream job and a network of friends that kept her vibrant and active. Now she gets easily exasperated when her mum discusses their neighbours or when her dad starts talking about the new political TV show. Being the only child, Ana was used to being pampered while growing up, but now her parents are having a hard time predicting her mood as it swings easily from being bored to worried. As she puts away a job application and starts to scroll her Instagram feed – mostly video chat screenshots and breads – her dad beckons that it’s breakfast time. Her dad pours tea into her favourite mug while her mum brings piping hot coxinhas to the dining table.

Bristol, England 1.00 PM

After three weeks of staying at home, today Nicole felt great. She wasn’t sure whether it was her online lecture by her favourite professor she attended on social psychology, or her video chat with her cousins back in Singapore an hour ago that cheered her up. Nicole got ready to go to a park nearby to say a socially distanced goodbye to her best friend who was moving from their University town to start work tonight. As she got ready, thinking back on all the memories they’d shared the past two years, a bittersweet sadness engulfed her, but she promised herself not to cry. In addition to her normal routine of getting ready for a bike ride, she wore her face mask and tossed a hand sanitiser in her bag. It was a wonderful farewell with a lot of smiling faces. As she rode back thinking about the lovely day, she came across someone yelling at her. Probably she misheard it but half way through, another voice muttered, “Go back to China”. The words sent a chill through Nicole. An hour later, she broke her promise in solitude at home.

Kakuma, Kenya 3.00 PM

As Ilyaas was returning to the building where he lives with groceries in tow, he heard his little sister’s voice from the top floor asking him to wash his hands elsewhere in the refugee camp. The weekly supply of water was almost empty, so they barely had enough left for the remainder of the week. He delivered vegetables on the second floor and at a 6-foot distance, his neighbours reminded him about talking to the landlord to request water to supply them for at least three days a week, and to get more soaps. He went upstairs to his living room where the bathroom was parted in the corner and cut the remaining soap bar into multiple pieces. On his way out, he handed over the pieces to people he passed. As he started venturing in search of water, Ilyaas wondered how and when he or one of his friends could confer with any public official who might visit the camp.

Haldwani, India 5.30 PM

Papa was back home already around this time yesterday, 8-year-old Zehra ponders. Her father promised that they would have her favourite chicken for dinner. As she joyfully anticipates dinner time, she calls out to her sister to play hopscotch. Now that her sister is back home from Nainital for awhile since the garment shop where she worked closed, Zehra has company to play with and someone to help her with her math lessons. She and her sister now take turns helping their mum with chores since meal preparations are based on groceries bought daily which is dependent on their father’s fruit sales. Today their father did not have many sales as he was not allowed to sell in certain neighbourhoods despite leaving his taqiyah at home and removing the crescent moon sticker from his vehicle. So, chicken would not be on tonight’s dinner menu but Zehra is rewarded with an unsold mango as a dessert after daal and rotis.

Tokyo, Japan 8.00 PM

Work has been inordinately hectic this past month. Being a health scientist, the current work Sara has been doing has been realigned in order to match efforts in researching about coronavirus. She worked until midnight yesterday without a moment to rest in order to submit a report. In addition to managing her workload, Sara had to homeschool her 3-year-old and 5-year-old kids. Consciously or unconsciously, Sara had instilled her ingenuity in them so that they became fluent in virus vernacular in an adorably cute way. After a long day, Sara was almost too tired to move so her partner cooked dinner and put the kids to bed. She briefly debated reading on the cot and sleeping on a cozy bed in their bedroom. Either way, it was a win-win. As she snuggled in their blanket, she heard her younger daughter demanding a lullaby.

Hobart, Australia 10.00 PM

At 86 years, George’s idea of being too young to be living in a nursing home flew out the window when he decided to move to the Care Village in Rotorua in New Zealand to be closer to his longtime friend Sally. They made plans together – go fishing at the lake, visit Redwood forests where they used to hike in their 20s, and savour their favourite mussels. Recently, however, he received the news that Sally had contracted the novel coronavirus. George was no longer sure about when he would be able to see her next or whether he will be seeing her at all with his emigration papers pending for an indefinite period. Although his time and mind were occupied with gardening all day, when he finally went to rest, ever cheerful George found that trying to fall asleep was a futile effort. He went to check on his tomato plants on the front porch and came across a letter on the stoop – his 5-year-old neighbour had come by to check on him and had written about her quarantine life. This moment of connectedness filled him with an enormous sense of hope and love.

Inspired by true life events and people