India to New Zealand-A Covid-19 Journey E-Book

Dexter Britto

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

This book is dedicated to the traveller who is stranded in a place away from home.

The germ of the idea to put my thoughts on paper originated after a conversation with my cousin, Neil D’souza who encouraged me to record my experiences for posterity.

What started as an article gradually evolved into a book – sometimes even taking me back to my childhood memories in Mangalore.

Under normal circumstances; a journey from Mangalore to Auckland is nothing out of the ordinary. However, throw in the dynamics of the Corona Virus and the myriad of challenges it creates and you have a travel that is fraught with anxious moments. There were times when I visualised Sisyphus rolling an immense boulder uphill but there was always a glimmer of hope.

This is my first attempt at writing a book and it narrates my stay in the City of Mangalore, my onward travel from Mangalore to Auckland and my mandatory fourteen day quarantine that I had to undergo due to requirements of the Government of New Zealand.

Leseprobe

Dexter Britto

India to New Zealand-A Covid-19 Journey

BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

Chapter 1

Mangalore in the month of March is hot and humid. Today was a day no different from any other. Bright and Sunny - it was great to wake up in the city of my birth where I spent the first 20 years of my life. I looked forward to making the most of every day. All I had were another 63 days and a big list of things to do in my hometown.  Having immigrated to New Zealand, 21 years ago, every trip to Mangalore evoked nostalgic memories and a yearning to spend more time - something only an expatriate would understand.

Armed with ambition and optimism to greet another morning; I jumped out of bed and feasted my eyes on the palm fringed coconut trees from the 3rd floor of my Uncle & Aunts “Heritage” apartment in the residential locality of Urwa. The warm fuzzy feeling didn’t last for long as my thoughts were rudely interrupted by the sound of a lone crow perched on the ledge.

As if it wanted to grab my attention; it started cawing nonstop; its volume increasing with every passing second. My intent glare didn’t frighten the crow nor did the congregation of crows it had invited.

Somehow it took me back to my childhood. The sound of a cawing crow always brought a frown on my Grandmothers grave countenance. It disturbed her terribly as she considered it a bad omen or harbinger of death. As if to lend credence to her superstitious beliefs; our family lost 2 Aunts after the raucous cawing of a spasmodically twitching solitary mournful crow. Dismissive of my pessimistic foreboding; I decided to scroll through my phone to check the latest world news.

And so it was on that morning on 18th March 2020 when I saw the breaking news alert: “Winston Peters, New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs urges 80,000 New Zealanders to return home”. At the time; I was yet to comprehend the gravity of the situation. Little did I anticipate the events that would unfold in the next few days and the months to follow!

Aunty Maisy and Uncle Stany

Chapter 2

The Corona Virus had made its appearance in late 2019. While the rest of the world was blissfully ignorant and looking forward to usher in a new decade; a few countries were already battling an enemy that was lethal and deadly. The first country it was known to have affected was China. Subsequently countries like Italy and Iran reported cases of people testing positive for Corona Virus.

The Virus later came to be known as Covid-19 and is said to have originated in wet markets in Wuhan. It is also alleged by countries like USA that it may have been manufactured in a laboratory in Wuhan. While I had heard of cities like Shanghai, Chengdu and Beijing; this was the first time I heard of Wuhan. Sadly, it took a deadly virus to make Wuhan a famous or rather infamous city. The WHO decided to name the disease Covid-19 in order to steer clear of linking the outbreak to the city of Wuhan and avoid further stigmatization.

Italy was the first Western country to be slammed by the outbreak; the hardest hit region being the Northern region of Lombardy. Following the news updates; I learnt that the former Prime Minister of Italy Giuseppe Conte who had close ties with China had signed the Belt and Road agreement. As a result many Chinese settled down in Lombardy, Tuscany and Veneto regions.

Having returned from China after celebrating the Chinese New Year; it is believed that many of these returning Chinese passed the virus into their communities. No health checks were carried out at the ports of entry. Research indicates that older people were vulnerable to the effects of this deadly virus. The regions that the Chinese have settled in Italy had a high proportion of aged people; most of whom succumbed to the virus.

Similarly, Iran has a high concentration of Chinese in the ancient city of Qom. The Iranian authorities were unable to control the virus and were unaware that the people were getting ill on account of the virus. This was as early as December 2019. Soon the virus began to spread its tentacles and made its appearance across the Globe.

A relatively unknown website “Worldometer” which provides real time world statistics became among the most reliable sources to obtain statistics for Covid-19 related information. Founded approximately 12 years ago; the Covid-19 crisis boosted the website’s popularity to such an extent that it was among one of the top-ranking Google search results for statistical data pertaining to the virus. From barely 65 shares in the first half of 2019; its pages have been shared about 2.5 million times since the Corona virus pandemic.

A few of the countries like Unites States of America & Brazil were in a denial mode and the Presidents of these Countries; Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro dismissed the concerns of many saying it was just another case of flu.

Some countries like Taiwan, Vietnam, Iceland and New Zealand took immediate steps to contain the virus. Vietnam did not report having a single Covid-19 death. Taiwan was among the first countries to contain the virus.

New Zealand; led by Prime Minister Jacinda Arden and the Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, took immediate action to contain the spread of the virus by setting up border entry measures and various levels of lockdown.

Some countries like Sweden were complacent and advocated the Herd Immunity theory. Time will tell about the success in their approach. Australia tried to contain it with semi lockdown, keeping the businesses open. On 8 June 2020 New Zealand reported it had no new cases for Corona for 15 days in a row and appears to have been successful in saying Goodbye to the Corona virus. They announced that from midnight on the same day the country would move to level 1. No more restrictions and social distancing.

Singapore was successful in containing Corona during the initial stages; but neglected to take into account their migrant workers who were living in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions where social distancing was not practical. Though new cases are being reported by Singapore, they have just announced resumption of flights between Singapore and Auckland in an attempt to boost their sagging economy.

The NZ Prime Minister has been proposing the development of a travel bubble comprising of Australia, New Zealand and Singapore to restore travel and trade links. The plan for a Trans-Tasman Bubble is also in the pipeline and this would allow New Zealanders and Australians to travel between the two countries without having to go through quarantine. This is being considered with some degree of trepidation because Australia has been getting new cases of Covid-19 every day. Hopefully caution will be exercised before a decision is made as it could negate all the precautions and planning that has gone into containing the virus.

While New Zealand was adopting strategic steps to flatten the curve of the pandemic since early March; India had not yet declared Covid-19 a health crisis even in Mid-March. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Nation for the first time on the 19th of March. He announced the ‘Janata Curfew’ for March 22, in what would be seen as a mock drill to prepare the citizens for a longer lockdown in future.

In the month of March, a global Islamic organisation, Tablighi Jamaat came into the spotlight as a result of a conference held in India on the 3rd of March. A large number of foreigners had travelled to Delhi to attend the conference. By the time the government declared the initial curfew and lockdown, it was difficult for the attendees to return to their countries or respective states. Some of those who managed to return to their respective states carried the virus and spread it to their respective communities.

The members of this apolitical group have decried violence and it was unfortunate that many hate mongers started spreading rumours on social media that the Muslims attending the Delhi conference were actually Jihadis who wanted to spread terror among the people by spreading the virus. There was a fake video being circulated showing the Muslims sneezing while at prayer in the mosques.

The temple at Tirupati continued to remain open until the lockdown, though they had reduced the number of pilgrims permitted from around 80,000 a day to around 40,000. The darshan was limited to 4,000 devotees per hour. Weddings of politician’s kin continued to be held without restrictions. Even the Chief Minister of Karnataka attended one such wedding. In the very same breath he advocated social distancing. This is the sad state of double standards and hypocrisy among our Politicians.

Chapter 3

Having left Mangalore for Nipani in 1983, my trips back home had been fairly brief due to work commitments. I always left Mangalore feeling dissatisfied as I was never able to accomplish all I meant to. My Uncle and Aunt, Stany and Maisy Dsouza who had brought me up were growing older and I looked forward to spending time with them and other close family. I had been prolonging this decision since several years and finally decided to take plunge and plan a 3 month stay in 2020. My Uncle and Aunt were very excited about my decision to spend 3 months with them and anxiously awaited the month of March.

I booked a 3 month confirmed return ticket on Singapore Airlines and was scheduled to return on 21st May 2020. Every time I travel overseas with my family I register our travel plans with Safe Travel NZ (a Ministry of Foreign & Trade website). This enables the NZ Government to track and trace Kiwis who are overseas and prepare for evacuation plans in the event of any calamity overseas. Since I was visiting my home country and Sri Lanka I didn’t consider it necessary to register our travel details with Safe Travel NZ. 

Due to Covid-19 infections surging in certain areas; I was aware of people making plans to get back to their country of residence. Due to my misguided optimism I decided to stick to my original plan and spend the rest of my time in my hometown.