Quarantiny – Chapter 9 – Day 10

Chapter 9
Day 10
Sunday 26 April 2020

“Happiness is when you are thankful to GOD
with what you have, not what you do not have”

Another very lazy Sunday. The third day of Ramadan. I could see the sky from my bed. The weather outside is very dull, very depressing – typical Melbourne weather. Not a single drop of sun light to energise you to go ahead with another day of this quarantine life. I left the bed around 8:30am.

No Zoom calls today, no meetings, no emails to check. Oh well, Lata Mangeshkar is the only hope to boost your day. The background music was so inspirational that I felt like do some work. Restart to write my incomplete article on Post COVID-19: Role of Impact Investment in Bangladesh.

It is day 10 of quarantine. I came to this room last Friday. Isolated since then. Talking to myself, my surface, my Zoom, my phone. The only live interaction I had with people was on the 4th day, when they allowed me to go outside to enjoy the fresh air.

I was struggling to continue working, could be the Roja or lack of energy or spirit. So, I decided to just sit on the bed and watch FoxCrime again. I watched two series of Criminal Minds and two series of NCIS. Always fun to watch these crime movies as you get involved if you wish to. Genuinely nice way of spending lazy weekend (!).

Its almost 2:00pm by now. Took shower and decided to complete the Season 3 of The Last Kingdom. Finished the series at one go. Talked to Nigar. She was overly excited that she had received iftars from both Jessie and Parvin vabi. However, Audi was still planning to cook chicken pesto pasta. The hotel phone rang. It was Carli on the other side, the duty nurse to check my health condition. Conversation ended with a satisfactory answer from me. Excellent service, I would say.

It is 5:00pm. Anxiously waiting for the door knock. At least that knock do confirm that there are other people on this floor. I am not alone in this quarantine. The people touch! Yes, iftar and dinner was delivered at the doorstep. Opened the door and collected the bags. Same iftar like yesterday – Eggs, salads, bread, yogurt, fruit and a pack of apple juice. The time to break fast is around 5:43pm today. It is always too much eating when you break your fast and same thing happened today. Decided to continue my walk pattern within the room. Walked 3.1 km, which I was enormously proud of.

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Nigar called to inform me that I may receive a call from Khokon vai and Lata, from Melbourne, parents of Adnan, as they were concern about my wellbeing. I thought it was genuinely nice of them that they wanted to talk to me. While talking to Nigar, I saw an unknown phone number was flashing and left a message. Yes, it was Khokon vai. I called him back and shared my quarantine programme and discussed about the general COVID-19 scenario of Australia and Bangladesh.

Arastoo vai called from Bangladesh, so frustrated. It seems like he was totally lost and did not know what to do, where to go, what to listen. Not hopeful with the Bangladesh scenario at all when it comes to the COVID-19 challenges. I could not disagree with him, but I shared some inspirational activities that we are conducting as part of our Build Bangladesh interim work plans just to empower him and to guide us as a leader.

Called Reaz and talked to him about today’s lazy status for me. Shared some of the ‘çrazy’ ideas playing in my head. Like always, no conclusion but decided to have an ongoing discussion on those topics. He also shared the shocking news about the Imam of the Channel I Mosque. The Imam just passed away yesterday after infecting with Corona Virus last week. His whole family is now infected. What a sad news. I could still see the Imam’s smiley face and delivering the sermon every Friday when we used to say our prayers under his leadership. He was probably in his mid-40’s. What a loss!

My mood is now very down. I just wanted to take refuge on my prayer mat. After that, no decision yet. But may listen to some more songs of Lata Mangeshkar to return my normal happiness in quarantine.

Good night.

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow,
you got to put up with the rain” 

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