#425 My Quarantine Story of 21 days

MY QUARANTINE STORY OF 21 DAYS

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 10^th 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 4^th 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 12^th day and 19^th day were mandatory to be performed on people Quarantining at the hotel. The result of my 12^th 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

©All Rights Reserved

Swati Sarangi

04.07.2021

#424 Featured in CULTURE FLASH (INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE) Apr Issue , 2021

 

Please follow this link to read the poem

#423 8 years of musings and reflections

                         

8 years of musings and reflections

Source: Google Images

    It’s absolutely a thrilling experience to share this day with you all when our blog turns 8 years old. It is no different from witnessing your baby growing into a matured one and learning through its own experiences. It’s like an act of introspecting my own thoughts all over these years. I must say, it has been a hell of an experience and many more to experience in days to come! So, this post is going to be a contemplative one. 8 years are long- isn’t it? To be honest, it’s the only thing that I have clung to, over these years.

 

What a coincidence to share my biggest day falling in this month as well! So March has definitely got some of my favorite and interesting episodes of my life to look forward to, each year.  On 4^th of this month; in March, I completed a year of togetherness with someone whom I just met a year back and Cupid conspired us to be with each other before Corona put everyone within the confines of their four walls. Life has its own timing and plans which no one is able to decipher accurately.

 

About my journey of writing, I was not so regular in this platform, I must admit, but it, in no way, implies that I gave up on this activity; writing. I was always writing on one or the other platform; either on digital media; online or with a pen over a piece of paper and experimenting with different forms of writing to express myself better. Sometimes, I seriously get stuck about the topics to write, you know, that’s writer’s block which every writer faces when he goes out of prompts to write about. This year, I am serious about reading as much as I can and make myself comfortable about the topics which have been obscure to me. I hope reading can be one of the ways to tackle writer’s block. Another resolution of this year is to meditate as much as I can so as to organize several thoughts to enhance my creativity. Of course, there are a lot of goals for me to achieve in the professional front as well.     

            People mature with their age and experience. For me, it has been a bit opposite. I feel the graph of maturity seems to be inversely proportional with age, in my case. I am still figuring out the real purpose of my life; the reason of my existence. I am still figuring out different options to advance my career. I am still figuring out the ways to accomplish my bucket list which I created a year ago. Among all these confusions, episodes of rise and fall, I did really learn to control my emotions in a better way. I have again started to dream like I used to and believe the possibility of my thoughts as no goal is difficult to achieve once you’ve decided firmly to achieve it.

            My heartfelt gratitude to the almighty for helping me to find my soulmate and a lovely family who have accepted me as part of their family with so much love and care that I always make myself feel pampered. What can I ask God more than to have a partner who shares similar goals, aspirations and supports me to achieve them. I really apologize to God for the days when I felt ungrateful, unloved, or underconfident in spite of having everything in my life.

            My vision associated with this blog still remains intact; to write to inspire people or create a change in their lives.  May I get experiences ordained by the almighty to derive wisdom to put them in my writing.

            Thanks to all readers for constantly supporting me in an unconditional way.  I couldn’t have gone so far without your words of appreciation. I always look forward to your feedback for my improvement.

Source: Google Images

 

All Rights Reserved

Swati Sarangi

25.03.2021  

#422 : Book Review : Life's Amazing Secrets

 Life’s Amazing Secrets-How to find balance and purpose in life

Image : Google

Author: Gaur Gopal Das

Genre: Non-Fiction

Format: Ebook

Number of pages: 209

Star: 4.9/5 (Self)

Published by: Penguine

 

Review: Who doesn't know Gaur Gopal Das? This book is written by one of the most respected and loved monks of today’s time, who is also a disciple of Radhanath Swami. This book provides a very interesting read just like his lectures that you might have come across in YouTube. This is a self-help book of its own kind which is written in a very simple and narrative tone.

 

Gaur Gopal Das has made sure to inculcate precious philosophies of life through real-life examples. This is the reason why he has created a main character Harry who invites him over the lunch prepared and served lovingly by his wife Lalitha. They discuss several aspects of life, right from how those couples met, fell in and out of love to the meaning of life. This is when the monk goes on narrating several incidences from his life to emphasize on the fact that our car-like-life must be balanced on four wheels as Personal life, Relationships, Work-life and Social Contribution. If there's an imbalance in any of these wheels, the car might get lost from its path while moving towards its destination. He also has discussed the importance of gratitude, spiritual practice, the act of forgiveness, speaking sensitively, self-discovery, decoding spirituality at work, selfless sacrifice, etc through several stories and anecdotes to make it relatable by the readers. Philosophies of life are better understood when those are relatable. This is what Gaur Gopal Das has exactly done.

My Review:                                                           

I feel so grateful to have picked up this book for reading as it’s my 5^th book of the year. The language of the book is such that I felt listening to his lectures. This book acts as a gist of all the lectures given by the monk. I would definitely recommend this book to those who are on the path to figure out the purpose of their lives.

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Swati Sarangi

23.03.2021

#421 Certificate of participation for 52 Weeks Writing challenge 2020-2021 S3 from Story Mirror

 

#420 Certificate of Publishing; Magic comes in Pieces

Hi folks, 

I hope that you're doing well! 

Here comes my first publication of the year! Do give it a read!

Grab your copy here; Magic comes in pieces!

#419 Revisiting year 2020

Revisiting the year 2020

Hello Everyone,

Hope you all are doing well. You may be engaged in the process of bidding adieu to the year which is going to slip out of our hands in the next 3-4 hours.  It has been a customary practice for me to reflect on all the moments which I lived in the year and express my gratitude to it before it fades away. So, through this post, I feel so excited to walk down my memory lane.

 

This year made me believe in the power of the Law of attraction and manifestation of intentions. The first month of the year promised me to establish a lifetime relationship with someone I had come across then. There was a family reunion to celebrate our engagement. Then followed Valentine’s week which had always been an ordinary week for me except this time, it had a meaning. There was a joyous phase of preparation for the D-day of my life. I trusted my intuition to invite someone I had come across a few months ago, in my life. I let myself go with the flow of the process that the Universe had designed for me and finally the D-day arrived for us to depart from the home I had been a part of and to take responsibilities of the family I was very warmly accepted as.

 

Then it was the conspiracy of Universe to let me quarantine with my partner to know him better. I learned to cook and be more responsible for dispatching my duties of day-to-day life. The phase of lockdown was never easy but it had definitely provided me enough time to be with my permanent roommate. During this phase, I tried to create beautiful memories to cherish for the rest of my life. The phase of lockdown had definitely slowed down this fast-paced life and enabled all of us including the nature to bloom in our own way, away from the unknown rat-race we had been into. I started following the activities that provided me internal happiness. It included singing, painting, writing, reading, learning different programming languages, revisiting my bucket list and striking off a few points from that, and developing some healthy habits. I completed watching all movies from my movie list which had been pending since time immemorial. I participated in some of the virtual competitions and garnered appreciation for my performance.  I was successful in getting an international test score.

 

I realized how important it is to live in the present moment as the future is uncertain and it is promised to none. The importance of health cannot be ignored; I realized it until I fell sick twice and the fear of getting infected COVID started haunting me. The reunion with family after a long period was literally emotional. I am so grateful to God for letting me meet one of my dear friends.

 

The most important thing to feel grateful for during pandemic days is that I am healthy and safe and so are my family and friends. I wish that this trying and challenging the phase will pass off soon when we all will be getting back to the normal state of life when we will be able to breathe in fresh air devoid of this deadly virus.

No doubt, this New Year’s Eve is different from all other years and all of us are locked up in our rooms, practicing social isolation, many of us are away from our family and friends but amidst all difficulties, let us hope for a bright future which is about to embrace our lives.

So, wishing you all a very happy new year! May this year 2021, fill your life with abundance in all spheres.

 

Image Source: Google Images

All Rights Reserved

Swati Sarangi

31.12.2020  

 

 

#418 Book Review:The infinite Road

 

The Infinite Road

Grab a copy from here :The Infinite Road

Author: Shefali Arora

Genre: Fiction

Format: Ebook

Number of pages: 147

Star: 4.8/5 (Self)

Published by: Locksley Hall Publishing

 

Review: This novel revolves around the central character, Alunkrita, who works in the corporate sector of  IT. She discovers a disabled and abandoned child, Anokhi (which she names her later), and brings her to her home to take care of her. Slowly and steadily Anokhi becomes the motivation of her life and her mundane corporate life does not seem to be dominating now. When she returned from her office, Anokhi’s description of her day at school and her mesmerizing skills of art would always enchant Alunkrita. Alunkrita’s life consists of Sowmya, her childhood best friend who invites her to be her partner in her business venture with Parth, who was her lover from her school days. Alunkrita was in a relationship with Parth and because of the career priorities of pre-University days of preparation, their relationship broke up on a bitter tone and Alunkrita has still not forgiven Parth for that incident.  It was from that incident, Alunkrita has never fallen in love until she meets the neighbor, Siddharth who located from Dehradun to her neighbor’s house which remained empty for many months. Alunkrita’s attraction towards Siddharth grew more over the fact that he bonded so well with Anokhi.

One day, Alunkrita’s mother arrives at her home surprisingly and finds Anokhi to be there. There’s an unpleasant discussion about Anokhi between the two. Anokhi overhears their discussion and Alunkrita’s plan to send her to a boarding school in the future. The fact of going away from Alunkrita saddens Anokhi.

Alunkrita plans a surprise birthday plan for Anokhi where she has also invited an orthopaediatrician couple who will be doing surgery on Anokhi’s feet so as to remove her disability. On her birthday, Anokhi goes missing. After a lot of efforts of Alunkrita, Siddharth , Sowmya and Parth, it’s Parth who finally finds Anokhi and takes her to her office the next day after finishing off all formality.   

All misunderstandings between Alunkrita and Parth starts to fade away after Anokhi’s discovery and Alunkrita decides to give love a second chance after Parth’s honest confession of feelings towards her. Both of them get engaged and plan to marry in the next two months. Parth gifts a well-designed office room to Alunkrita to begin the start-up journey that she has always wished to.

 

Alunkrita gives a nod to Siddharth’s wish to adopt Anokhi and take her to his home at Dehradun. Siddharth, a widower, who has lost his wife and daughter, in a car accident, feels that Anokhi would alleviate the emptiness of his daughter, Diya in his life. With an understanding partner, Parth by her side, Alunkrita’s journey of the infinite road of life now seems less challenging.

My Review:

First of all, I would like to thank my dear blogger friend, Shefali for gifting me her book as a Christmas gift and this is a really great book to end the year with! It’s really great to connect with one of the dear blogger friends of google+ days and witness her pursuing her passion along with her profession.

I always prefer a happy ending in fiction and I am glad the story has a happy ending to it. I like the way the characters have been introduced in the plot and connected to the existing characters. The style of describing different events and expressing different emotions is simply superb. The narrating style is so interesting and engaging that I finished the book within three sitting and I felt like I was one of those neighbors of Alunkrita who witnessed everything happening in her life and neighborhood. I was so engrossed in the plot that I left everything aside to finish off this book. Believe me, it was a very engaging read! With this novel, I'm successful in completing the 2020 Reading Challenge of Goodreads

I would definitely recommend you to read it. I’m sure about the fact that when you get hold of this novel, you’ll simply lose track of the time until you reach the last page of it which exactly happened in my case.

I wish the budding Author and my friend great success in all her future endeavors.

All Rights Reserved

Swati Sarangi

30.12.2020

#417 Certificate of Tarang Digital Singing Competition

 

Link to the recorded event