By: Sujatha Rao

“Tested Positive? But how is it even possible?”

“Even I am shocked Prabha.  But that’s what the report says.” Arun said in an apologetic tone.

Prabha continued staring at Arun as though she was still waiting for an answer to her question.  The right thin line at the corner of her mouth started quivering. Suddenly she looked frail and small in the loose kaftan she was wearing.

As the silence in the room continued for a few moments, Arun felt more helpless than Prabha did.  He wanted to comfort her but didn’t know-how.  Earlier, whenever the words failed him, he would try to comfort her with a warm hug. But that having been ruled out under the present circumstances, he felt miserable. 

When Arun had let himself into the house silently a few minutes back, Prabha was busy with her daily chores in the kitchen. As usual, both the children were totally immersed into their respective devices in the separate bedrooms, totally oblivious to what was happening outside their worlds.

“I have been so very careful. Always wore the mask when I stepped out.  I have been washing my hands too as soon as I step into the house. More than once even you appreciated me for being cautious. Haven’t you?”

Arun nodded in agreement.  Prabha desperately felt like holding onto her husband.  Instead, she stepped back realizing what such a thing would entail. She took out the face mask from one of the kitchen cabinets and covered her face.  That simple gesture of hers broke Arun’s heart as it highlighted to him how the safety of her family members came first so involuntarily to Prabha even in such a helpless state of her mind.

After a long pause, she whispered “Thank God, It came out negative for all of you.”

The tension in the house had started a couple of days back, when Prabha started running a low grade temperature accompanied by a bout of cough.  The next day Arun too felt somewhat sick.  That’s when Arun decided to get the entire family tested to be on the safer side. Arun had just walked into the house with the test results.

Tears sprang into Prabha’s eyes and in a voice choking with emotion she asked Arun “What do we do now?”

“Don’t you worry, Prabha. We will manage, and we will take care of you.” Arun said even as he himself doubted his confidence levels for tackling the next couple of weeks without Prabha’s physical support.

He still couldn’t fathom how it was only Prabha who tested positive.  After all, she was the one who was always home, wasn’t she?   

Maybe she got it from the milk man whom was uncontrollably coughing the other day. 

Or could it be the vegetable vendor lady from whom Prabha bought her vegetables regularly? Now when he thought about it, she too had been missing for a while before she sprang all of a sudden looking somewhat sick three days back.

On second thoughts, her bi-weekly visits to the Reliance retail stores could be the culprit.  

Or it could be any of the other sporadic visits she had made during the week – for repair of the blender or the couple of visits to the stationery shop for picking up something the kids needed. 

All it took was coming into contact with one wretched virus. As he tried convincing himself that it was simply her bad luck, Arun was slightly disappointed that it was his wife who caught the virus instead of him.  Would it signal to the world that he somehow under delivered his duty as the head of the family, he wondered.

Trying to free his mind from such desultory thoughts, Arun called the children out of their rooms and broke the news to them gently.  Daughter Megha started crying while the son Rohit stared at his Mom in shock. 

Arun said “Don’t worry.  Your mother is strong and she will be alright.  But, we all need to take care of her.  I have already got in touch with Dr. Iyer and your mother will be under home quarantine while being closely monitored by his team. The home quarantine kit will arrive by tomorrow morning.”

The children nodded. Frustration and helplessness over not being able to hug her mother was writ all over Megha’s face. 

Trying to sound as normal as possible, Prabha said, “I am very happy that all of you tested negative. Don’t worry about me. I will quarantine myself in the master bedroom.  It’s only a matter of 15 days. Meanwhile, your father really needs your help.”

Then trying to make light of the matter, she went on to add with a forced chuckle, “Hey, don’t look so serious. Don’t you think, you should all be happy about getting rid of my constant nagging for a fortnight?” In spite of Prabha’s best efforts at lightening the mood, nobody laughed.

The family got ready for Prabha’s home quarantine regime. Fortunately, except for an intermittent cough, Prabha didn’t exhibit any other symptoms.  As she started living within the four walls of her bed room, Prabha thanked the Lord for sparing the rest of her family members, such an ordeal.

Soon she settled into her new routine.  For the first time in about 18 years of her married life, she realized she had her time only for herself.  She caught up with her sisters and friends over long phone calls and Whatsapp chats. She tried keeping herself busy with her daily routine of yoga, meditation and reading. Slowly a sense of peace began to descend upon her.  Her cough too subsided within no time and with adequate sleep and relaxation she felt healthier than ever.

Within two days into the quarantine, she decided to chronicle her experience in a journal.  Prabha had always been interested in writing.  She was the editor of her college magazine. Prior to her marriage, quite a few of her articles were published across various platforms and magazines. However, during the second year of her marriage, she gave birth to Rohit, and Megha followed soon thereafter. After the birth of her children, her passion somehow got buried underneath the burden of her familial responsibilities.

A smile crossed her face as she realised at that point in time it was only she who had the luxury of having a room for herself in their house.  If someone had asked her a fortnight back, which one was worse – COVID-19 or WFH (Work From Home), she would have surely picked WFH.  

But when the announcement had come from Arun’s office way back in the month of March 2020, that all the employees of his organization were required to work from home, she had eagerly looked forward to it. 

‘Finally, some together time as a family’ she had thought. ‘Maybe some sharing of work too’, she also hoped against hope.

As the days rolled on, with the two bed rooms being occupied by her two children for attending their online classes and Arun converting the hall into a sort of a camp for his office work with frequent meetings over Zoom calls, Prabha spent most of her day within the four walls of their kitchen. 

The little time she earlier had for watching her serials on the TV or reading books or magazines had now become history.  In fact, she hardly had any spare time for herself with the increased amount of cooking as every member of the family was home ALL the time with zero options of eating out.

“Prabha, I am about to get into another Zoom meeting in ten minutes. Can I have one more cup of coffee please?”

“Mummy, I am hungry. What’s there to eat?”

“Mom, why don’t you try out something new for evening snacks today?”

She jumped into action at each of these dialogues day-in and day-out.  And the fact that during the long period of lockdown,  there was no help from her savior maid added to her woes.  She found herself constantly overwhelmed with cleaning, washing, doing the dishes, running errands simultaneously trying to be more vigilant about the safety of herself and her family. By the time she hit the bed late in the night, she used to be too tired and exhausted. 

Thankfully, her daughter helped her with the cleaning work in the house and her son pitched in to assist her in cooking as he enjoyed trying his hand out at that once in a while.  But then, it all depended on their teenage moods and the kind of experiences they had on their social media handlers during the day.  

Arun had never been that helpful handyman of the house when it came down to domestic chores and as usual, he rarely stepped in.  Prabha had given up on him a long time back after trying her best to rope him in during the initial period of their marriage.  Instead of moping about it, she had decided to focus on his positives so that peace prevailed at home.  But for this trait, Arun was a very good family person always prioritizing his family first.

While Prabha was enjoying her peace inside the bedroom during her quarantine, the scene playing outside her room was almost of the opposite kind.  She could literally feel the tempers running high outside her room with each of the family members constantly snapping at the other.  Initially, Prabha tried to settle the matter from within her room. But soon she gave up realizing how futile her attempts were turning out to be.  She decided to focus on herself instead. Except for some occasional guilt feeling for living for herself, she felt quite relaxed and refreshed. 

After about a fortnight Arun got Prabha tested once again and the test came out negative to the great relief of all.

Arun called the children from the testing centre itself to break the news.  As soon as both of them stepped into the house, Megha came running and held her Mom into a tight bear hug. 

The family cut a cake in celebration. Everyone was happy and relieved that things were going to get back to normal in their household.

That night Arun asked Prabha about her experience during the period of quarantine.

“To be honest, I had the best time of my life behind the closed doors, though I definitely missed being with you all.  I felt a little bit guilty about my being so happy too. Wait. I want to show you something.” Prabha rushed to fetch her notebook lying next to the night lamp on the study table in their bedroom and took out a couple of folded sheets from within.

“You know I used to write earlier.  After a very long while, I thought of giving words to my thoughts.  Initially, the blank sheet stared back at me defiantly as though they kept repeating “You cannot”. But soon the words started pouring out of me.”

Very slowly, she unfolded the two sheets on which she had captured her thoughts and handed them over to her husband.

“I want you to read it.”

As Arun read through the papers silently,  Prabha waited for his opinion with bated breath.

Finally Arun lifted his head and said “I am sorry Prabha.”

Those were definitely not the words Prabha was expecting from him. Her heart sank when she thought he was about to pass on a very negative verdict on her piece and hence the apology.

She felt quite embarrassed about herself.   She felt like a fool and with a deep feeling of remorse she tried to snatch away the papers from Arun’s hands saying “I know, it is quite bad, isn’t it?  I haven’t written for a long time and I shouldn’t have showed it to you.”

“No, No, No, Prabha.  My apology is not about your writing at all.  It’s very good.  It’s so good that I can’t believe it’s you who has written this beautiful piece.  It’s uplifting without being overly pedantic and preachy.  It really connects with people – at least it did with me. Trust me. My apology is for something else.  Please hear me out.

During the last 15 days, I came to understand the true meaning of working from home. I never ever could fathom how much work you have been silently carrying out all these years. Even while I went on bragging about the increased working hours  I have been putting in since the day I started working from home, I never paused to think how much of increased work load that has resulted in for you.”

Prabha’s heart literally melted at these words.  She said “It’s okay Arun.  What I did was for the family.”

“That’s exactly why it is not okay.  As a family, we should have known and acknowledged your contribution. Especially me.  Honestly speaking, I literally died doing all that work just for 15 days and that too with the kids pitching in more than they normally did.  I really don’t know how you have carried out all this over the years so patiently.

Now after I read through your piece, I feel all the more guilty for not encouraging you to continue with your passion, especially when you seem to be so talented.”

Staring intensely into his wife’s eyes Arun continued “No more blank sheets Prabha.  My resolution for 2021 is to ensure that you get enough time to continue to write.”

“The encounter with COVID-19 has really turned out to be a WAH moment.” Prabha said leaning against Arun’s shoulder and sighing in contentment.

“A WOW moment, you mean?”

“I mean W-A-H moment – WAH being an acronym for ‘Work At Home’. Is it not true that it’s thanks to COVID-19 that you are able to appreciate and say ‘Wah’ to my Work At Home role.”

“Oh, my! You are already speaking like a writer – giving deeper meaning to ordinary words.” Arun said pulling his wife into his arms and kissing her on her forehead.