‘Though at home, told mom I was in Delhi’

It was on July 7, a few days after the last PCS Association meeting, that I developed Covid-like symptoms and chose to quarantine myself in a separate room. The test report came on July 9 by then my wife Harpreet Kaur, too, had a mild fever and cough. She and my son got themselves tested," he says. "Upon testing positive, she confined herself to a separate room. Thankfully, our son tested negative and is still safe," he adds.

His official staff and domestic help were also tested. Surprisingly, two of his gunmen, who were not with him in the meeting, came positive. "Rest all were fine but we sent them home," he tells.

"All along three weeks, my major worry had not been mine or my wife's health but that of my 85-year-old bed-ridden mother, who cannot move a bit," he shares. He has not met her since he became unwell and watches her through a CCTV fitted in her room. "She is being taken care of by a nurse who stays at our home. She has been daily asking her about me and my wife and is being told that we are in Delhi for some official work and would be back soon. Whenever she gets too much adamant on calling us back, I make video-calls to tell her that I am fine and will be home in some days." Singh tells.

"My sister, who too had been here because of 'Work from Home' provisions from her office, has been taking care of our food and daily needs. She cooks food and puts it in a disposable plate outside our room. After having, we throw the plates in a big dustbin polybag kept in our rooms. My sister has been such a big help," he owes much to her.

But he has been troubled, yes the virus is there but all the while it is the extent of calls he has been taking. "More than any Covid symptoms, it were too many calls and messages coming on phone that bogged me down in the last 20-odd days," he says. Eventually, to keep his mind a bit relaxed, he switches off his phone. "Being alone in the room of my house, I did not even feel like switching on the TV for a minute. The only thing that I did was to clear some files on the online governance system from my room," he adds. He began these such little chores a week later when he showed signs of recovery.

"The best thing to happen at this time was the response coming from the Chief Secretary Punjab. She showed so much concern for all the 16 PCS officials who fell ill after the meeting. We were daily getting calls from her or her OSD asking if we need any help, medical or otherwise. She even got developed a mobile application for just all 16 of us wherein we were to upload our daily body temperature, oxygen level and pulse," he says, before adding, "Motivational calls from SDM Jagraon Neeru Katyal, too, were always what we looked forward to. We also used to get calls from the employees of a BPO hired by the state government for home quarantined people. It used to be a 12-minute call daily wherein they asked the same set of questions repeatedly."

Three weeks on, he is hale and hearty maintaining a good safe distance from everyone.

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