Our corona diary.

[Text and photo by Chaitanya Suraj Mamidi]

I close my eyes in my self-isolation from corona… and I see the migrant laborers in Delhi who are forced to walk all the way back to their hometowns, the doctors and healthcare workers who are being thrown out by their landlords, the state that has conveniently used this opportunity to demolish protest sites, the justification of vigilantism, and the normalization of racism that’s happening.

Then I see news about dolphins returning to canals in Venice and elephants freely roaming around in rural Wuhan, and that gave me a glimmer of hope.

Once I got to know it’s all fake news, it started making me introspect why I fell for fake news so easily. This has happened for the first time with me.

Then I realized that I was not ready to accept the grimness of the situation and was holding on to every piece of optimism I find, to prove it wrong.

The best way to get through this is to make peace with the reality of the situation. Yes, the reality is grim, but every dark tunnel has a bright end, at least so I hope.

“We the Isolationists” series urges folks from any part of the world to share a brief diary starting with “I close my eyes in my self-isolation from Corona… and I see…” Not more than 100 words. With a horizontal-sized selfie, along with your city name… please mail to me at mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com.