When the news of the spread of Coronavirus first outbroke in India, I was hella scared. Covid had made several million people die in Italy, China and other countries and yet there were people in our country, predicting… assuming that because of the heat levels it won’t spread severely but it did, millions of people in India caught the virus, a part of the affected population recovered from the illness but a part died from the virus as well. Last year has been tough on everyone. I still remember washing outer packaging of packed food items delivered to our house from hand soap in fear it might be contaminated from the virus. The better half of Covid-19 made me overly conscious that I used to sanitise my hands obsessively. I was so afraid that I didn’t step out of my house, not until I had gotten admission in YMCA last November.

Covid-19 literally made me coop in my room, which worsened my health because I wasn’t getting any fresh air. My parents were so stressed and worried about me that they started forcing me to go up on the terrace and walk at least an hour. The good thing that came out of this was delicious food made by my sister who’d picked up cooking as a way to cope in the pandemic.

One year later, I am utterly grateful that my family and I are safe and that the vaccines are out and hopefully this pandemic will soon end too and our lives will return to the old normal where we would walk and talk without masks on our faces and where when a person coughs, others won’t scrutinise and assume the person’s got Covid in their system.