The Dilemma of turning COVID positive within a community

 The volunteer was tasked to assemble people from her neighbourhood. As a community mobilizer, she did her job well and convinced many of her family members to come for the painful RT-PCR testing. As it turns out, everyone turned negative except for her cousin sister. Now, as her family curses her for bringing covid misfortune, the volunteer stands confused – tore between her sense of duty and bringing trouble at the doorstep of her own family.

Maari is the man of the house and an alcoholic to boot. He is a happy-go-lucky cinema aficionado and occasionally garlands Vijay or Surya when their movie releases in one of the single screens of East Bangalore. Maari however is angry and confused as he was involuntarily pushed into one of the many covid camps currently underway in the East Bengaluru landscape. And what came as a shock to him was the news that he has been pronounced Covid positive. Denial, fights with the NGO volunteers and finally a grudging acceptance of the fact that he was positive seemed to have mellowed Maari down. But, just as the small sister of a volunteer above, Maari was also asymptomatic and had to undergo a brief period of home quarantine. But in the testosterone fueled society that we live in, Maari could not handle the stigma and decided to return to his native village in Tamil Nadu.

Covid has struck a deep discord within the society and accentuated several of the earlier ones.