From her previous
experiences, Sarika resolved to get this issue fixed as soon as possible but never
by compromising with her requirements of life-partner. She started to
participate in this process actively by taking the initiative and interest to
interact telephonically with the prospects. What was she losing in this
process; nothing but definitely those prospects were losing someone like her which
they could never imagine to have in their lives! She was no longer compromising
with her self-worth. The more she interacted with different prospects; she
learned a thing or two about different psychologies, stories, view-points,
careers, struggles and insecurities. It was enriching her experiences; her
journey of self-discovery and search of twin-flame. She, now, wholeheartedly,
gave chance to prospects to interact with her as well as bid them goodbye
gracefully when the situation demanded to do so. As a result of changing her
attitude, she got a chance to interact with some nice guys. She could now discuss
on topics that matter more openly and parted ways when she felt
compatibility issues on any ground.
Most of the time, the
process just ended up with the interaction of parents of both sides; prospects
were never in the picture! So, she wanted the prospect to show interest or rather
than parents getting involved at the initial stage. She wanted the prospect to
have enough interaction with her so that there is not a little bit of doubt
about marrying each other. She believed that they should be able to interact
without any barrier and let their parents know about their decision. She
believed that she was at a stage where she can choose her partner better than
anyone else because she had never ever discussed her requirements in this
area with anyone in her life, if she doesn’t take full responsibility for her
requirements and choices today, who else is to be blamed for, in future?
[It's
the biggest responsibility of any parent to find a suitable match for their
daughters whom they hold as the most precious entities of their lives (for whom
their love is very unconditional, inexplicable). So, this attachment through
unconditional love makes them restless every moment and the hunt for the
suitable groom continues.]
When
she was left with no live proposals in her hand, she thought of giving this
process a break and focusing on something else. Amidst all these happening, she
kept doing her homework honestly; feeling happy and grateful about the current
situation, enjoying her hobbies, practicing meditation to be calm, praying,
listing the qualities of her dream partner, visualizing spending moments with
him, journaling, watching wedding
videos, healing her mentally, psychologically, spiritually and preparing
herself for the biggest day.
...............................................to be continued.................................................................
After staying with 16
roommates till now at different hostels (in different cities), Sarika started
developing a feeling of losing them which was something inevitable. This
gave her an idea of pondering about the permanent roommate; soulmate.
After all, at the end of the day, in this ever-changing world, finding someone
to rely upon completely is an obvious desire.
Sarika has always
wondered about the permanent roommate; her soul mate; how he might
look like, will he be prince charming? Will he be full of knowledge and
appreciation for all good things around, that she has always wished for? Will
he be mature enough to understand her as a person as her father does? Will he
be the most comfortable person for her to be with? Will everyday duties
and responsibilities of life get eased down with him through a true sense of
love, emotional intimacy, and understanding of every little thing around them?
Will her life just be straight out of any Hollywood movie where the expression
of love has been portrayed so immaculately? These were just a fraction of
several zillion thoughts going around in her mind at that point of time.
Sarika’s parents and sister started the
process of groom-hunting through a matrimonial site, even when she was not
fully prepared to get married as she was about to complete her Masters's and take
up the best available opportunity for her career. Her parents believed that
arranged marriage process takes time to get materialized into a marriage which
usually starts from matching the birth chart of both the candidates. During
those formal meetings which were of too-conservative-types for her, in which
either the match was fixed even without meeting the guy or not getting enough
space to interact personally with the guy, she realized that this process of
groom hunting was something not working in her case. Every time, these
matrimonial meetings were done at her native place which was around 1800kms
away from her place of work. Each meeting that didn’t turn out to be
successful was testing their level of patience (owing to long-distance travel)
and draining their resources like time, energy, and finance [Even though her
parents were okay with it as long as the right match was not fixed, they were
never in hurry]. So, she started to think about more practical and optimized
approaches to fixing this issue.
It is said that behind
every successful man, there lies the strong support of a woman who has always
believed in him when the world never had. A responsible lady is one
who not only takes care of herself but also the needs of her husband, family, and everyone around. Sarika has always admired and followed those love stories
where there has been mutual growth and those stories have prompted her to believe
in the power and strength of this intangible emotion called 'Love'. She
has always wondered about the lives of famous personalities who have been
successful enough not only in their professional lives but also in their
personal lives. That's where the concept of balancing these two spheres becomes of utmost importance. Those love stories which I look up to for inspiration are
onscreen Dakota Johnson +Jamie Dornan, Mark Zuckerberg+Priscilla Chan, Narayan
Murthy+Sudha Murthy, Sundar Pichai+Anjali, and her parents. She wanted to
be like those ladies to become a pillar of strength for someone who has lost
hope in his potential that once brought him all laurels( that he had always
desired.)
The difference between
the above marriages and her parents was that her parent's marriage was arranged.
She always believed that achieving a sense of understanding and care in an
arranged marriage involves a lot of sacrifices when you don't know the other
person well. So, she has been a little bit skeptical about arranged marriage
for her generation but perhaps it was what was destined for her and she has to
accept it the way it is. Perhaps it is going to change a lot of predefined notions
and concepts from her mind.
The image of marriage
in her mind has always been a love one as she has always wanted to be a very
independent woman, capable of finding her own life partner. This image of
marriage that she had in her mind during her childhood started to get hazy in the coming years when her confidence got shattered due to a series of continuous
failures. She has always thought of setting an example to the world by her love
story but little did she know that destiny had a different plan for her.
................................…………..To be continued…………………….
As the trailer suggests, this movie is
about arranged marriage which has been set up in Madurai. The narrator, in the
beginning, describes the possibility of this marriage is majorly due to two
reasons; divine intervention and Rajanikanth. The first reason becomes apparent
within the first 15 minutes of the movie whereas the second reason becomes
clear only at the end of the movie. Their marriage is performed in the temple
of Meenakshi Sundereshwar, Madurai which forms the basis of the success of
their marriage, just like any other arranged marriage which starts with such a
belief. Meenakshi’s grandfather believes that Lord Shiva as Sundereshwar has
arrived at his house to ask for the company of Goddess Parvati as Meenakshi.
It’s Sundereshwar’s desire to work
independently by chasing his dreams, as well as his honesty, are some of the characteristics
which attract Meenakshi whereas it’s Meenakshi’s confidence of bringing a
significant change in the organization she would be working that Sundereshwar
admires the most. Sundereshwar is very passionate about coding for which he
wants to join a reputed MNC and is not at all interested to get involved in his
family business of Saree. On their wedding night, Sunder gets the mail about
the interview of a company for which he starts preparing by promising Meenakshi
to spend some hours with her before leaving for the interview.
He eventually gets selected and
prepares to leave for Bengaluru where he’s expected to do a
6-months-long-internship before he is offered a position in the company. Their
relationship takes a long-distance form which throws a lot of curveballs
towards them. Meenakshi, over time, gels well with different members of
the family, and everyone is impressed by her intelligence and charm.
Sunder, on joining the company in
Bengaluru, finds that the company hires bachelors who can dedicate more time to
the work without getting distracted. He hides his marital status and tries to
get acquainted with this new culture. At the same time, he also keeps searching
about ways to keep their long-distant-relationship active and alive. Meanwhile,
Meenakshi has also joined a small firm in Madurai to keep herself engaged.
In the company, the interns are
expected to design an app and the best design will be awarded and that intern
will be offered a permanent position in the company. Sunder gets busy in
executing his idea in the app and lack of communication, distance, etc. become factors
for the misunderstandings between them. Meenakshi decides to take a break from
the house of in-laws and accepts the offer of one of her college friends to help
him with the finance of his family business.
On the day of the final presentation, one
of Sunder’s roommates creates chaos. He sends a message from Sunder’s mobile to
Meenakshi asking her to meet him at his office and he reveals Sunder’s marital
status to the CEO of the company. Just a few minutes before the turn of Sunder for
the presentation, he receives a message from Meenakshi who is waiting for him
in the cafeteria of the office which infuriates Sunder. He meets Meenakshi and
loses his temper while explaining his situation. Seniors and CEO also arrive
at that place while searching for Sunder and ask him to get back to the
conference room for his presentation. Meenakshi leaves the place by being
offended.
Sunder overhears his senior’s
interaction with his roommate and comes to know that he’s the culprit behind
all those chaos. He enters the conference room on being called and presents his
app which is to test the emotion of the person. He has created this to understand
his wife better while being in a long distant relationship. At the end of his presentation,
he states that he won’t be working in that company in the future as he’s married
and he has hidden his marital status throughout.
On returning to home, Sunder becomes
saddened by Meenakshi’s absence in his home. He resolves to bring her back and
visit his in-law’s house who say that Meenakshi has been away without informing
them. Sunder continues searching Meenakshi everywhere he can but he fails. The
poster of Rajnikant on a wall ignites his hope of finding Meenakshi in the
movie hall as he recalls from their first conversation that Meenakshi never
misses any first-day-first-show of Rajnikant. Eventually, he finds Meenakshi in
the movie hall enjoying the movie of Ranikant and their love story kicks start
from where it has left.
My
opinion:
Dangal
girl Sanya Malhotra has portrayed Meenakshi to be a confident and intelligent
girl just like her character as Renee in the movie Badhai
Ho.
This is the third movie of her that I finished watching and I really admire her
acting style which comes out to be so natural. Not to forget, Abhimanyu Dassani
as Sundershwar has performed equally well in this movie. Sundershwar is that
shy, ambitious, quiet, and obedient guy whom every parent pushes for an
arranged marriage.
This
movie revolves around the life of a newly married couple where Sundershwar
juggles between his ambition to perform his best in his IT career lest he
should look after his family business and long-distance relationship. In an
arranged marriage, a long-distance relationship at the beginning of the
marriage becomes tough when they've not given much time to understand each
other. In such cases, it's obvious to have arguments and misunderstandings
which the gadgets make even worse. This motivates him to design an app, as a
task of the internship, to understand his wife better.
For
me, it's a one-time watch movie with a relatable script. I wish I could
understand those Tamil lines in the middle of Hindi dialogues. It would have
made the regional influence of the movie more understandable for me. I
personally feel that the storyline could have been much stronger to render a
lasting impact but the songs have been very suitable for different situations.
My
rating goes 4.4/5, the best part is that this movie ends on a happy note,
thereby making my weekend-watching more enjoyable and satisfying because I
believe in happy endings.
It
is said that it takes 21 days to make or break any habit provided you do it
every day for 21 days without any fail. This number 21 seemed frightening to me
at first, when I got the news of the HK government’s policy of 21 days Quarantine
at Government designated hotels(supposedly 5-starred) for those traveling to
HK from high-risk countries like India but I could hardly anticipate the myriad
of experiences that it would provide me.
I have always wished to have a solo
trip abroad, luckily this year my wish got fulfilled amidst the pandemic. I took
a chartered flight to Hong Kong from Delhi in April. I got to know about
the flight just a week before my departure and there was a lot of stuff to
do.
To organize my writing of sharing my
story of Quarantine, I am going to divide this experience into different phases
as below;
Phase-1 Preparatory Phase
This phase involved everything
related to booking the flight and the HK govt. Designated Hotels for Quarantine,
arranging required documents for traveling during the pandemic, getting the report
of COVID test done before 72 hours of travel, it was really taxing.
Phase -2 Journey Begins; Part-1
I took the early morning flight to
Delhi from Bhubaneswar. As soon as I reached Delhi, I had 6-7 hours, in my hand,
to board the evening flight to HK. It was my first international solo trip by
flight during the pandemic, I was cautious about maintaining the social distancing.
I was very excited about being able to strike off something from my bucket list.
After finishing off my lunch, I
headed towards the international departure area of IGIA. I had to convert INR to HKD so as to be on the safe side even though I knew I might not
need them there as major expenses like bookings were already taken care of. It
was a great initiative by the travel agent to do one-time luggage check-in
directly from Bhubaneswar to HK.
After completing the document
verification at immigration in IGIA,Delhi, I moved to the waiting area. I had around
30 minutes which I used to converse with my family. Then I boarded the flight
at 8P.M by abiding by all safety measures.
Phase 3- Journey Begins; Part-2
The flight took off from IGIA, Delhi
at around 7:50p.m. I took a private chartered flight (which used to fly to HK twice a month because of the pandemic) which transported me to the
destination in 5hours and 30minutes. The flight was a little crowded for this era
of pandemic and kids were getting anxious with masks and PPE kits which made
them roam inside the flight. I watched Article 15, which was always there in my
list of movies to be watched along with some episodes of Friends. I enjoyed the
dinner and especially the custard was too delicious.
I could hardly sleep in those five
and half hours of my journey. Oh, no! not because of the excitement but for the
cries of toddlers. They were impatient with masks over their mouths. The next morning, I landed in Hong Kong at 4:00a.m. Then began a series of processes and
tests which included verification of our documents, preliminary tests such as the swab test and Nasal test . After the tests were done, the passengers were instructed to wait in
a sitting area, which was there in the airport, for the result of the test. It
reminded me of the moments of exam in a huge examination hall from school and
college days when students were made to sit at some fixed distance. I realized
that my Indian SIM card had become useless at that point of time but thanks to
the public wi-fi hotspot at the airport, I could connect with my family. That
time of waiting was unpredictable then until the result of swab test of
everyone from my flight was out. A voice from someone woke me up from my
slumber telling me that the report came negative and I could then go to the hotel.
I then realized that I had almost fallen into sleep for 4 hours!
I collected my belongings and headed
towards the exit. On the way to exit, a tracker was tied to my wrist which would
monitor my restricted movement inside my hotel room for the next 21 days and breaching
of this rule might put me into prison for 6 months or impose a fine of
25,000HKD. I was asked to install stayhomesafe app which would keep an
eye on my movement during my Quarantine.
HKIA
After all the formalities were over,
someone in PPE kit asked those passengers, who booked in Regal Airport Hotel,
to make a queue. So, a queue, of four people comprising of two males and two
females was directed to the Regal Airport Hotel which was connected to the
airport and was barely 200 meters away.
Waiting for the preliminary COVID report at the airport
Phase 4-21 days Quarantine at the hotel
Entrance of Regal Airport Hotel
I reached the Regal Airport Hotel
around 11 a.m. I was so hungry and exhausted at that time. I was allotted a
room on the third floor which had a nameplate with ‘Shivaya’ written on it.
You can imagine the sense of relief that one gets from coming across something
familiar. I was relieved by the fact that the invisible forces were taking care
of me in a foreign land.
I took bath and freshened up
quickly. The breakfast given by the hotel was inedible for me, so I relied upon
the protein powder, prepared by my mother-in-law, for my breakfast. My room was
spacious with a queen-size bed, a massage bed (perhaps), an LCD screen mounted at
the wall facing the bed, a big mirror (what else one wants!!) I later utilized
the space of the room for my workout and walking. The windows of the room could
not be opened as per the guidelines of the government.
Tracker
My daily routine included getting up
in the morning, looking through the window, and observing the two-tiered
colorful buses passing by, doing workouts, practicing music, being a guide to
give a virtual tour to my family and friends, connecting with other people
Quarantining at HK preferably in the same hotel, complete the assignments of
the courses I was enrolled into etc. I opted for fruits in the breakfast, my
lunch and dinner included Indian Veg cuisine. Food seemed to be a little
repetitive but I could not have asked for more in a country that provided veg
dishes of my preference. I found the staff of the hotel really helpful and
cordial. They were always eager to help me whenever I needed any.The tracker tied to my wrist
demanded me to scan the QRcode on it, every now and then. I had no option
except to fulfill its demand.
Lunch at Regal Airport Hotel
During those days, I felt blessed to
have across an online coaching platform; Study Table, which provided free
education to underprivileged students of class 10th of Odisha.I used to teach English,Maths and Science to these kids through zoom. It
fulfilled two wishes of mine; first to teach students; second to help the needy
ones.
Phase 5- The Twist in the plot
View from my window @RAH
I felt feverish and cold on 4th
day of my arrival at the hotel. I had a severe headache, running nose, sore
throat, lose motion, and stomach upset. I assumed it to be the result of jet lag
or the food provided at the hotel. I took a tablet of paracetamol and in two
days I was fit and fine except for the loss of taste and smell. It was so kind
of my husband to deliver all eatables and a box of Sabji and Roti, which I ate
so fondly [He delivered bags of food items at the entrance of the hotel and the
staff put it at the door of my room.] I regained a sense of taste and smell
after 2-3 days and resumed my normal routine. During that time,I got the news that
Cooked food by my husband
around 90 passengers from my flight got infected and all flights from India to HK were banned for next one month.
As per the guidelines of the HK govt.,
COVID tests on the 12th day and 19th day were mandatory to be
performed on people Quarantining at the hotel. The result of my 12th
day test came to me like a bolt from the blue. By that time, I had got the news
of around 80 cases of positive from my flight, especially people sitting
adjacent to my seats were already tested positive. Health Department of HK
Govt. released a report of COVID cases every day at around 4P.M HKT which I
used to follow religiously.
Dinner at Regal Airport Hotel
I received a call from the hotel
staff stating that my report had come positive and I would be shifted to the hospital by evening. Govt. officials would come for picking me up. It was the time when my family was also going through a tough phase as my father had surgery on that day, so I kept this a secret.
I did not understand why destiny had
to intervene in my normal routine as I had almost got habituated to that room of
the hotel. The thought of getting surrounded by that health-care-equipment scared me. I received a call from the Department of Health, HK enquiring about the background for details and asked me to pack up my luggage and wait for the
official to arrive. I did as I was instructed to and waited for the govt. officials to arrive.
Ambulance for shifting me to PMH from the hotel
Two men clad in PPE kit knocked on my
room at around 8:45p.m and asked me to follow them with my luggage. I was directed
out of the hotel through the emergency exit where there stood an ambulance. I
was asked to get into the ambulance. After doing preliminary verification based
on my identity in the ambulance, my journey to the uncertainty began. I neither
knew those people who were in the van nor the route to the hospital. I even did not have an HK-SIM card with me. All I knew, just a few minutes before the
departure of the ambulance, was that I was taken to Princess Margaret
Hospital. After the journey of nearly 50 minutes, I reached Princess Margaret
hospital(PMH). In those 50 minutes of the journey, I was completely cut off from the
communication as I had no network to connect to. I had no choice of my own
except to trust the process. Had I been in India under such circumstances, I
would not have been alive to tell my story and everyone knows the reason very
well.
View from my window at PMH
That journey reinforced my trust in
the people regarding the safety of women. Those people helped me to shift to a chamber
in the hospital. I can never thank them enough. On that floor of the hospital,
COVID-positive patients were kept in isolation and under observation. I
connected with my family through the wifi of the hospital and got to know some
good news lie successful surgery of my father, recovery of my uncle and
grandmother who was also hospitalized. I was then, in the interior of the city,
some 5kms from where my husband had been staying, unlike that of the Regal
Airport Hotel which was situated on a different island than that of my
husband’s place. That gave me enough reasons to feel grateful before going to
bed.
My bed at PMH
The next morning was in a different
place than my usual place of stay for the last 2 weeks. The nurse woke me up as early
as 6:30 a.m to perform mandatory tests like blood pressure, temperature, and
saturation level. Later she did an X-ray, blood, and saliva test. These mandatory
tests were performed every day till I was at the hospital. The nurse asked me to
wait for the call of the doctor. I started learning German lessons from Duolingo
which had been pending for many years. My ward was cleaned regularly and a
hygienic environment was maintained. I missed the meals of the hotel very much
as the food given at the hospital was bland and tasteless.
In HK, no-call is considered a
great sign, however, after two days, I got a call from the doctor stating that
some abnormalities had been found from my test report. A minor infection in my
liver was detected and he suspected it to be the action of the Corona Virus. He
said that I would have to be shifted to a specialized center, HKICC(HK
Infection Control Center), North Lantau Island for further treatment the next
day.
Meal at PMH
That evening, my husband delivered
HK SIMS along with some eatables at the hospital which were provided to me. I
had no idea about how HKICC would look like. The next day morning at around
10:30a.m, two govt. officials clad in PPE kit came to pick me up in an
ambulance. I thanked the nurses before leaving as they took care of me really
well except for handing me a big-fat medical bill!
Phase 6- At HKICC, North Lantau
HKICC,North Lantau
HKICC was situated close to the
airport, so again I was taken out of the city. The journey took around 45
minutes, unlike my last travel experience; I could look around through the
window of the ambulance as it was during the daytime. I was a little worried about my family as
I got to know that almost all of them had got infected with COVID. I knew that
I was getting the best facility there which they might not be in India.
It was a huge center with capacities
of over 800 beds. Only around 20-30 beds were occupied when I got admitted there.
I was put into an isolation hall with 10 empty beds, kept there. I was
instructed to perform mandatory tests such as blood pressure test, temperature
test, and oxygen level saturation test twice a day and feed these data a PC kept
in that hall. It was a quite spacious hall with proper lighting but the windows
were closed. The wifi facility was better than the two places where I had
stayed before and the food provided was the best as compared to the past. I liked
that place very much and I resumed my normal activities like singing, picking
up the course where I had left, watching some series and movies, learning
German, connecting with friends and family, etc.
Smart system for mandatory tests
When I arrived in HKICC, after
completing my background verification, a set of tests such as mandatory test, saliva
test, x-ray, thyroid test, blood sugar, pregnancy test, etc. were conducted and
I was asked to wait for the report. Every afternoon, the nurse would collect the blood
sample and perform antibodies test. If reports of two successive tests achieved
the desired CT value(which they never revealed), I would be discharged from the
hospital. I kept eagerly waiting for the day of my discharge from HKICC. I was given some antibacterial tablets to cure the infection in my liver.
One day, I received a call from the
doctor regarding the attainment of desired CT value and I would be discharged
the next day after completing all formalities of HKICC. That night I could not
sleep with the excitement of going out of HKICC and meeting my husband after
six months. Luckily, I was discharged on my 21st day of Quarantine, not a day
more! The nurses at HKICC were very helpful and caring. They helped me to carry
my luggage out of HKICC and booked the taxi for me after finding the fact that I had
come to HK for the first time. I reached my husband’s place after a taxi
ride of 40 minutes.
Lunch at HKICC
My Top 5 Takeaways from this experience:
1)1) It’s never wise to form opinions
about people and places based on available media and other’s experiences. I
found the people of HK very kind and helpful. They always treated me well, not
differentiating on the basis of the country I originated from. I can never thank
them enough for their unconditional gesture of kindness!
2)2) Being optimistic in tough situations
helps. I learned to trust the process and believe in the plan of the almighty. Not every
uncertainty in life is problematic.
3)3)Constructive hobbies can be
developed easily in 21 days. I started learning German during my Quarantine and
I am still continuing that. Hobbies literally saved me from boredom.
4)4) The gift of life is NOW. The present is
the best moment. Sometimes, it may appear dull or boring but when it passes, it
will definitely provide memories for life. I experienced Quarantining in a 5-starred
hotel in a foreign land for 21 days which might not have happened otherwise.
5)5)There are a thousand reasons to feel
grateful in a situation. The quickest one would be to be able to breathe!
COVID-19 has taken a lot of lives
and paralyzed the usual lifestyle of people. It was a very painful situation to
lose my Grandmother due to it. In this tough situation, we need to stay strong and
visualize our lives getting back to normal because it too shall pass!!
Sham Shui Po, Kowloon,HongKong
P.S: As promised to me, on the condition of settlement of all my
medical bills in HK, to post this experience of mine in my blog, I just can’t
express my relief in mere words about the news of me being exempted from paying
the bills based on my residential status in HK. I am very grateful to the
officials of the Immigration Department for instantly responding to my inquiry
through the mail and thoughtfully considering my situation. I feel liberated from
an unprecedented debt that could’ve reflected as a medical bill otherwise, if
not have been settled. I am immensely grateful to the almighty for that! I am glad
this ended on a happy note because of which I am able to share my experience
with you.
I've uploaded two videos related to my Quarantine experiences on my YouTube channel ;Around The Globe
