Chapter 4: chapter 4

Then there was an uninvited second lockdown and then the third with stricter restrictions. When the government took the responsibility of releasing the migrant workers who were caught up in remote cities, towns and villages we got our first case. The patient was looked upon as a criminal. People started passing their unsolicited judgements. It was mandatory to wear masks inside and outside. The higher authorities of the town were performing their tasks diligently. Nobody could escape from the RT-PCR tests and spending fourteen days of isolation in government-selected camps after migrating to their hometowns. The movement of men, trains and vehicles was strictly in check but the outcome was the spread of the virus at an unimaginable speed and a robust increase in death rates.A shiver ran down my spine on hearing the first death news of an aged in my town. It was a red signal for the people to be extra careful. No matter, there was a partial release of lockdown. My father-in-law started going to his shop at the end of May. We prevented him but he was getting utterly bored at home. Never in his life span of seventy-nine years, he had ever taken a break. He was running his watch shop incessantly for five decades. He purchased a built house after spending years in rented apartments and married his three daughters and one son in this long tenure. He had self-disciplined himself in work and assignments. The tailoring and the footwear sector were still on hold losing the patience of my mother-in-law. One fine day in August, she was also freed from the shackles of bondage. She started going to her boutique happily. However, there was a marked decline in their sales. Gradually, relaxation was delivered to all sectors except the educational departments owing to the mass gatherings that took place every single day.My husband's journalist friend tested positive. He doubted to have been coming in short contact with him in the past fourteen days. So he isolated himself from the rest of the family and kept up on the second floor of our building which remained usually vacant as we resided on the first floor. He followed all the necessary precautions. It took around a week to receive his RT-PCR reports. I remember we waited with bated breath for the reports. It was more than going through a rigorous examination. The report was negative. But a rumour was spread across the town that I and my husband had tested positive. I received many phone calls and messages for confirmation. Relatives and friends questioned my in-laws about our well-being. I went to the extent of thinking, "These gossip makers intentionally want to bring down the name of our school making the virus a target. They don't want parents to send their kids to our school forever." Such was the dismay of the virus then.The danger of the contagious virus was looming large over every head. I had to pay full salary to the workers for the complete three months without taking their services as they depended upon us for their upkeep. We were trained by the academicians to conduct virtual classes for the kids in June. All the nuisances of the google meet and Zoom applications were familiarised to us. Since the kiddos were too small to do their class on the mobile, I was apprehensive about taking a final decision. I summoned the  teaching staff in school and a forty minutes online zoom class was planned which needed to be commenced from the first week of July after taking the consent of all the parents. As we were not allowed to enforce anything upon them seeing the prevailing scenario. There was a revolt among some parents in the name of online classes.