Hello from the other side of the CoVid-19 swarm, that is. Over the past couple of weeks, many of you might have noticed the rarity of posting here on LiveFromALounge.com and our social media channels. Many of you reached out to us to check on us, and I can finally tell you, we are on the mend.

Very early on in April 2021, Shipra and I felt something was off. The initial signs of getting caught up with the Coronavirus were showing up, such as fatigue. First for Shipra, and a couple of days later for me. As would be the wise thing to do, and with Mumbai numbers being the talk of the town then, we set up our RT-PCR tests. For whatever reason, they came back negative. Reading up now, I hear up to 20% of tests are going false-negative nowadays.

But since we did not feel good, we luckily could get a second lab that was willing to pick up samples from our residential complex, to test us again. The lab was slammed, and it took a good 48 hours plus to get the reports to confirm our suspicion. We were both infected with the virus. As luck would have it, and as everyone says, we were following rigid protocols in hand hygiene, masks and everything else we were supposed to do. And yet, somehow, we caught it.

The Aarogya Setu went red, and the calls started to come in. The both of us went into home isolation until further notice, and we had the MCGM and other bodies calling us every day for checking on our status, sometimes via IVR and sometimes talking to humans. We had an employee of the local war room visit us, meet us from outside the door, talk to us about the facilities we had at home to ensure we could isolate at home, all while being at a distance from us, and even wishing us speedy recovery as he left. We haven’t met this kind soul again.

If you want to read about how Mumbai’s Covid-19 war rooms are operational and keeping on top of things, fortunately, there is an excellent report someone from the Scroll wrote up.

For us, help came in the form of doctors in the extended family, people who took us under their wing and teleconsulted for the both of us from Delhi while we were here in Mumbai. The fever was hard and took a while to break, but it eventually did. If you have a doctor in your family, I don’t need to tell you how important it is to keep up their morale right now because they are the angels that have been saving us all.

I can tell you a couple of days or three out of our isolation were a blur, and all we did was eat, eat medicines and sleep. I can’t even remember the number of people who reached out from our immediate residential quarters wanting to help and the excellent Covid-19 management protocols that were put in place to help us isolate effectively for about two weeks, rather than us having to step out for what we need. Oh, and Shipra was the one who kept me going at the lowest ebbs of this phase of my life, ordering me a cake (a healthy one at that) because before I passed out for a couple of days, all I was saying was that I wanted to eat cake. And I’m not too fond of cake, so it must have been the brain fog.

I never thought I’d be writing a post-Covid-19 narration, but this thing hits you hard, and hence I’d request those who have the resources to stay far away from it if possible. By that, I don’t mean I want you to hide in a Goa or anywhere else but stay home. Resources are stretched, and the best way to keep everyone protected is to be inside your own home right now.

As we are able to put our house in order again, posting will resume here. You might find some dated information that is still contextual for many of our readers. The past few days have been spent trying to make sense of the travel world, and some behind the scene efforts with people who were getting caught up with the entangled mess that Indian travel is becoming again.

But this has also given us time to regroup our thoughts and time to think. Besides some delayed projects that need to get back on track, we are hoping to contribute in our way to help people in the days ahead. We will talk about it when we are ready. Meanwhile, here are some important causes we are donating to, and we would love it if you could do your part. No pressure, but if you have the resources, they can do with some for CoVid-19 relief. Do your due diligence, though.

• Act Grants, taking INR and USD donations. These will go towards oxygen solutions, home healthcare & more.
• Mission Oxygen- Helping Hospitals Save Lives
• Hemkunt Foundation
• Khana Chahiye: Distributing Food to those displaced by the pandemic

I am sure there are more resources out there and people are doing their best to support those. These are some which I find personally interesting.

Last, of all, this is not a victory lap or a rant. I intended to just put this post out there to thank you from the bottom of our heart to all who have been in touch and checking in on us. The Pandemic has taken a lot, I believe from everyone, and here is hoping, once this settles, we will be able to see friends and family, and travel again. We need it, but right now, we just need to stay home. Now back to an Nth rerun of Somebody Feed Phil, a show that combines my love for all things food and travel.

Stay Safe, everyone.