GUWAHATI: There are a few things more heart-wrenching than the separation of a mother from her children.
If mothers bear separation in the line of duty, a grateful nation must acknowledge. Roshni Aparanji Korati, the District Magistrate of Jorhat in Assam, is one among such COVID-19 warriors.
A mother of two, Sanchit (4 years) and Suchit (2 years), she endlessly visits hospitals, quarantine centres and relief areas during the day risking her own self. In the evening, she quarantines herself at home so that her children and elderly parents remain safe in case she is already infected but not showing symptoms.
“I have to isolate myself. If I contract the virus, I may survive. But if they get it, they won’t,” the IAS officer, who hails from Visakhapatnam, told The New Indian Express.
“I am following this regimen for the past 15 days. I used to cook food and feed my children. That’s unthinkable now. My parents (aged 76 and 69) are managing the two kids but being old, they themselves need to be taken care of,” Roshni said.
The two kids now get to see their mother once in two to three days but from a distance. She neither goes to their room nor sleeps with them.
“As they scarcely get to see me, they cry. They think that I am not at home. Sanchit asks my parents if I am angry with him. He is sad that I have stopped playing with him,” Roshni said, adding “It is depressing for me that they cry.”
She said she had totally isolated herself from her kids and parents.
“I go to hospitals, quarantine centres and everywhere. So, I have to be careful. When I return home, I confine myself to a room far from that of my kids and parents. My entire cutlery set is different,” Roshni added.
Her husband, Kireeti Chebrolu, is a Deputy Commandant of CISF. He is posted in Assam’s Dibrugarh, 139 km east of Jorhat.
Till Sunday, 779 people were being quarantined in Jorhat.