ডাকবাংলা

Living one battle at a time

It’s been over a year since we’ve been living a nightmare of a reality bookmarked by disease and death. I hate talking and writing about this but I can’t always escape to some fantasy world of dreams. The reality feels like being dunked in a pond of freezing water in the middle of a Russian winter. Let’s not debate the physics of it. My point being, this second wave of COVID-19 has been far worse, especially due to the lack of any proper administrative aid from the central government. As we’re back in the middle of a full lockdown, I can’t help but a get a feeling of déjà vu. It seems as though we have just completed a full circle. We are back at square one, only difference being that all things are now heavier with loss. I know I’ve painted a rather dreary image, and it is the truth but it is not the entire picture. Through this year we have worked on our helplessness, on our paranoia and we have come out far more mentally resilient on the other side.

We were faced by an unknown evil, but now, while it is still rather beastly it is a little less unknown and we have figured out little ways to stand our ground and fight it. This world pandemic has truly pushed us into realising that the only way the human race will survive is if we help each other out. It is truly heartwarming and inspiring to watch people transform that helplessness into some form of constructive aid for people who really need it.

As the 8-phase elections drew to a close, the COVID-19 situation in West Bengal was pretty drastic. One of the major crises was lack of oxygen supply along with a dearth of hospital beds. A lot of people, young and old alike, were dying simply because they didn’t get oxygen on time.
It was then that my very dear friends and colleagues Piya Chakraborti, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Anupam Roy, Rwitobroto Mukherjee, Riddhi Sen, Surangana Bandopadhyay, Rajarshi Nag and I decided to come up with an initiative called Citizen’s Response. The NGOs HEDS- Health and Ecodefence Society, headed by Piya Chakraborti in association with Bangla Sanskriti Mancha headed by Tanmoy Ghosh, were able to raise some funds to create an interim COVID-19 relief centre.

This facility, located at Kandarpapur Welfare Society, in Patuli, started out as a place where COVID-19 patients requiring oxygen support could go to, while they waited for hospital beds. We had doctors and nurses present at all hours. As of today, we have also been able to develop a part of it into a safe home for COVID-19 patients. We are reachable 24*7 via our helplines.
Being able to provide people the care they desperately need and watching the happiness and relief in their family members is a beautiful feeling.
However, as much joy as all of us involved have received in being able to help save lives, there is a constant feeling of trepidation about all those lives we might not be able to save despite doing the best we can. The technicalities, the permissions, the sanitation, the medicine supply, refilling oxygen cylinders, all of these areas and more require extreme attention and patience and must be handled with utmost care.

This experience has been extremely humbling. It has catapulted my respect for doctors to a different level. The courage with which they constantly face not just the disease but also the desperation of the patients’ families is remarkable.

I honestly urge all of the youth and anyone else willing to sincerely spend time and energy on COVID-19 relief to get down to the battlefield, however, arm yourselves well. It is important to do all the research necessary and more before attempting any relief measures so that we may never end up harming despite our honest intentions of helping.

Several of my other friends too have done very vital relief work like delivering food and medical supplies to people who have been afflicted with the disease and it makes me very proud of them.
I hope we all have the strength to hold the line for as long as we have to fight. It may be a long war and we may lose a few battles but I believe, as all of us must, that we still have a lot of fight left in us.

Illustration by Suvomoy Mitra

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