HYDERABAD: Fear, panic and helplessness just about define the current situation in India where nearly every other house has a Covid patient. While most parts of the world are limping back to normalcy after a year of the pandemic, cases are going off the charts back home. This is giving Hyderabadis, who are settled overseas, sleepless nights as they cannot stop thinking about how their families are coping with the chaos playing out in the city. What’s worse is that they cannot even help them but just be there for them, that too virtually.
Speaking to a few such people, who are terrified of losing their loved ones, has revealed that their mental health is taking a beating. Imagine living in constant fear; every time the phone rings their hearts skips a beat. A Ravi, who is settled in New York, has his mother and sister living in Hyderabad. “I hear so many stories every day and most of them are sad and disappointing. Every phone call makes me nervous. Reading so many obituaries of people whom I knew is numbing. Other than praying for them, I am unable to do anything,” he says.
When the cases started to increase in March first week, Ravi had a gut feeling that things would just get worse. “I started talking to my family and friends about it regularly and had even alerted them, but they did not take me seriously. I could understand why because India had recovered from the first wave quickly. But by April first week, the numbers surpassed the records of the first peak. And now it seems like it is a never-ending wave of nightmare. Other than getting vaccinations or maintaining social distancing, I don’t know how this situation can get better. It is scary to even think of your family members getting infected and being unable to cope up,” he says.
Shilpa Shah, who lives in Australia with her husband, is expecting a child soon. The fact that she might not be with her family while delivering her baby pricks her every day. “Looking at the situation in Hyderabad, I feel helpless and hopeless. Australia has banned travel and I do not known when I will get to see my parents. I hear the news of my church friends dieing of Covid in Hyderabad and I am unable to get over it. The situation is disturbing. More than anything, I feel bad for the younger generation as they have to witness this mess. Everyone’s mentally disturbed by the news coming in from India,”she says. For Samantha, who is a nurse in London, watching the Covid catastrophe in India is agonising and traumatic.
“People are struggling to get basic medical aid at the right time. Before this pandemic hit us, I felt I was just a few hours away from home. But now I do not know when I will be able to see my loved ones. This crisis has emotionally affected me. I get worked up every time I receive a message or phone call from Hyderabad. It’s like I am waiting for bad news,” says Samantha, who recently lost a friend to Covid. The friend was a nurse at ESI Hospital. “I could not believe my ears; I had just spoken to her a few days before she died. It happened all of a sudden. Now, I am keeping in touch with my family and friends more than ever before. I call up my mother regularly but all I can say to her is to be safe or advise her about what to do in a worst-case scenario. I feel helpless as I am unable to travel to India and be with her,” she says.
Glen Correya, who is in Oman, says expats are almost resigned to the fact that the lives of their loved ones back home and theirs could be turned upside down any moment. “And we cannot do anything to prevent the impending tragedy. We cannot be there to help our folks due to the travel restrictions. We all live from one lucky uninfected day to the next, dreading that phone call or WhatsApp message in the middle of the night. The circle of family and friends we’ve lost to Covid-19 has brought us even closer to each other.”
Most Indians who immigrate to the Gulf think that they can stay and work there for as long as possible, but not anymore. Jude Mendiz, who is in Saudi Arabia, says, “The pandemic has turned all our plans for life and career upside down. We constantly live in fear thinking should we continue to stay here or spend time with our loved ones instead. Because if one, God forbid, should succumb to Covid, repatriating the body is impossible as the burial has to be done here itself. Your loved ones may not even get to see a picture of you. If by chance you lose someone dear to you in your hometown, you are not sure if you can reach there in time for the last rites. Even if you are able to travel to India, returning is difficult.”