JOURNEY
Gratitude for the godsends
Being afflicted with COVID-19 has made Shivi Verma ever grateful for the love and care displayed by humanity in her trying times
I am a strong votary of strength. My greatest life-lessons have been around finding my inner strengths and not giving up, come what may. I have trained my mind to think of possibilities in the most difficult of circumstances and give my best shot before calling it quits. If gloom or despair begin to descend upon me, I resolve my knotted emotions by doing meditation and then bouncing back with renewed vigour.
However, life has no dearth of new lessons it can teach you.
I contracted COVID in April and was forced to isolate myself from the rest of the world. Since I live alone, it became doubly difficult for me to take care of myself amid raging fever and aggravating symptoms. I had never felt so weak and helpless in my life. Yet this was also the time I came to know the real worth of people in my life.
I told my maid to stop coming to my house as I did not want to infect her. But she refused and said that she could not leave me unattended and uncared for in my hour of need. She continued to come every day to clean my house and serve me breakfast but simply avoided entering the room I was occupying to keep herself safe.
My work-colleagues decided to give me rest and took up many of my responsibilities so as not to let my illness hamper the work of magazine production.
My cousin sister and her husband came over to provide me with essentials like a vaporiser, oximeter, juice extractor, fruits, and medicines and would keep tabs on my health every day over the phone. Punya, my former colleague, braved a storm to get me coconut water, vitamin C tablets, essential medicines, and readymade breakfast mixes when she heard that I had taken ill.
My sister and brother-in-law, who live in the USA, sent me an electric cooker so that I could cook food without exerting myself. She also sent me the contact number of a young man called Nitin who serves free food to people afflicted with COVID.
When my condition worsened, my aunt used her resources to get me a bed in the hospital. After I was discharged from there, my fever returned and continued to plague me every day. My cousin brother travelled from Gurugram to help me get a medical check-up and blood test done. In the meantime, his sister had created a space for me in her house in case I needed to be constantly monitored and looked after, notwithstanding the fact that she and her husband are both diabetics—a dangerous condition for anyone susceptible to the coronavirus. Thankfully, my parents flew down to Delhi around the month-end, and I did not have to shift to her house.
Gradually, my fever left me. But this episode of extreme helplessness showed me the sparkling goodness and selflessness of people and the lengths to which they can go to help others. I am thankful for the bad time as it took my focus away from myself and put it on others. It helped me see the inherent goodness of other people without putting myself in the frame. It has increased my respect for them and my faith in humanity.
I shall forever be grateful to the nobility of these great souls who took care that I did not die of COVID-19, even though I was alone in my house. May all the needy ones get love and assistance like I did during their difficult times. May we learn to put others before ourselves and work together for the betterment of humanity.
Editor of Life Positive, Shivi Verma is a devotee who found all her answers in loving God passionately.