Quarantiny – Chapter 8 – Day 8

Chapter 8 – Day 8 – Friday 24 April 2020

“You never know how strong you are,
until being strong is the only choice you have”

It was an interesting morning today. First day of Ramadan. The roof from the bed was so similar that of my own bedroom, the sunlight through the eastern window was so familiar, event the television had the same ABC channel except this was not my home – I am quarantined in a hotel room!

Day 8. Half of the quarantine time is gone now. Just another 6 days to go. My inner spirit is still high but somewhere there is a type of frustration which is not allowing me to sleep well, not allowing my view through the window to hit me desired destination, my voice is not reaching out to anyone that I can share my feeling of isolation! Theoretically, it is isolation but in reality nothing is isolated from me – the negative thoughts, the scary future, the faded dream, all the works done to date are at stake, do not know the appropriate way forward, uncertainty, inability to stand beside the team, the disadvantaged, the people in need – all these thoughts were around me as my new companions. Trying to tease me out and challenging my capacity to cope with stress. I am determined though, not giving up so easily.

Just realised, there was not any knock on the door for breakfast. I saw the watch. It was 9:45am. Remembered the Zoom meeting at 10:30am. Jumped out of the bed. Opened the door and there it was my breakfast package. I vaguely remember a knock on the door last night early morning around 4:00am, now I know that is when this package was dropped for me to have seheri. I was overly impressed.

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Finished my one-hour Zoom. The hotel phone rang. Ema was on the other side from the nursing booth downstairs, asking about my health and/or any symptom of the cOVOD-19. The answer was, so far so good. Thank you.

I just needed to kill some time as there was no looking forward to the door knock for lunch delivery as I was observing Ramadan and I was fasting. Took a shower, sat in front of the laptop and started to watch rest of the Netfilx movie, The Last Kingdom. Watched it until the Prime Minister was updating the COVID-19 situation on ABC. It is not a bad picture for Australia. Just remembered the situation I left in Bangladesh. The infection rate was raising like rocket, the death rate was crawling upwards, not enough testing facilities, no mention about the situation at the Rohingya Refugee Camp in the southern part of Bangladesh. The policy outline by the Bangladesh Government is excellent, a world class policy including the stimulus packages. A true globally comparable policy. But, as always, the problem is with implementation. Still some people are supporting and practicing corruption. Even in such a National emergency. Really frustrating! Only God can help Bangladesh this time.

It is almost 3:00pm, time for my other Zoom meeting today. I was already feeling tired, but this meeting was set before and with few influential and prospective investors. So, did not want to defer it. The meeting went well, and I was happy for keeping the appointment. It was a long meeting though but good long meeting.

Knock on the door. Opened it and saw two large brown bags. On one a big sign saying Seheri and a nice letter from the hotel, explaining the food arrangements during the time of Ramadan and how they have tried to cater appropriate food for the month of fasting. I have to say, the details in that letter and the choice of the food menu demonstrated a lot of thought process and care. A real reflection of true implementation of a policy outline. I was genuinely impressed and immediately shared with my ‘concerned’ family and Reaz. All of them were enormously proud and satisfied with the service provider.

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The break of fasting was at 5:46pm for Melbourne and a bit earlier for Canberra. Called Nigar, and they just broke their fasting with some unbelievably delicious Iftar cooked by Nigar (photo 1, 2 and 3) while I broke my fasting with the lovely food provided by the Hotel (photo 4). I ate all of it and obviously ended with overeating! Nothing unusual on the first day of Ramadan. It always happens like this. Decided to walk a little bit. Walked 2.5km. Felt a little bit better.

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Called Erad (my Dhaka Office Colleague) to share some work updates. Then Called Reaz and talked about this gaps or lack of coordination among service providers responsible to implement policies in Bangladesh, while we both agreed about the unique and caring delivery of iftar and seheri to my quarantined room. Also talked about the religion and how we need to incorporate it as part of our life. Reaz mentioned that last night he had called Nigar to share some jokes about my quarantined life. Always refreshing to talk to Reaz. You get extra energy – a constant source of positive energy. The only person beside Nigar that I have talked everyday during this quarantine period. Felt incredibly lucky to have a friend like this!

Time to say my regular prayer and then finish this daily log. Watched rest of the Last Kingdom and then straight to bed. Though I was tossing between bed and having some food as Seheri. But I was not hungry at all. Still I had some eggs and some yogurt. Yes, now it is bedtime.

Good night.

“What a lovely surprise to finally discover
how unlonely being alone can be”

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