Our Quarantine Saga

 

Normally when I plan my trip to India, I have a feeling why not make it a year.  But then it will end up in a 4 to 5 - month trip only.  But this time when I left for India on a near six-month trip on 19^th Nov. 2019, it got extended to 20 months forcibly by the pandemic lockouts. Luckily before the lockout came into force we could take a trip to Madurai to offer our grateful prayers on 1^st Feb.20 at Tiruparankunram temple where we got married sixty years back. This trip was also made memorable by my brother, brother-in-law and co-brother and Rajam’s sisters and sister-in-law who all surprised us in the train by their presence in the same compartment as ourselves. The trip with them all to Madurai and later to Palani was one of the most enjoyed trips in our life.  Better it was that way for it was the only time that we could get out of Chennai in those twenty months of stay.  Even in Chennai our movements were mostly confined to Ashoknagar and West Mambalam in the fifteen months starting from April 20, the only break being our trip to the temples at Mangadu and Vadapalani on the occasion of our daughter Suchy’s Sixtieth Birthday on 5/3/21 which we could not attend in person at Sydney because of the lack of regular flights.   Only repatriation flights organized by Australian Government were in operation and they too did not start from Chennai.  At last when three repatriation flights from Chennai were announced, we booked our tickets in one of them, even though the flights were to Darwin only where all passengers have to undergo quarantine for a fortnight and return negative results in the weekly covid tests before then can fly to their desired destinations.  

But these flights were later changed to start from Delhi only and loaded with an additional condition that passengers should undergo self-isolation in a specified hotel in Delhi for three days and undergo covid test (PCR) arranged by them and can take the flight only if the test result is negative. Also one has to undergo the rapid antigen test at the time of admission to hotel and return negative result for admission to the hotel.  So we cancelled our bookings and waited for better days. After waiting for 45 days in vain, we decided to take the risk and booked for a repatriation flight from Delhi to Darwin on July 17 and for flight from Chennai to Delhi on July 14.  At the Delhi airport, our niece Swetha and her husband Debasish met us and escorted us to the hotel.  They also gave us a travel bag full of ready-to-eat packet foods to see us through the quarantine.

The quarantine hotel was Hotel Leela palace, a star hotel in Chanakyapuri, Delhi.  We waited in the foyer where the rapid antigen test was administered and when the test results came as negative were escorted to our room where we have to stay in isolation for the next three days. We were to confine ourselves to the room and can communicate in person only with the hotel staff who came to the corridor to place the food on the table outside.  The food was good and the room was comfortable with the usual amenities of a star hotel.  Only regret was we could not meet our niece and her husband after they left us in the hotel.  The next morning the PCR test was taken and on the morning of the day of departure, once more the rapid antigen test was done.  Both proving negative we were escorted to the airport and we heived a sigh of relief when we boarded the aircraft and took our seats.  The plane was fairly crowded and it was not a ‘bubble flight’.  The next morning it landed in Darwin, not in the regular airport but in the military airport.  The passengers were allowed to disembark in batches only.  When our turn came and we disembarked and checked out, we were taken in bus to the quarantine centre at Howard springs.

Howards springs facility was the accommodation earlier built to house the thousands working to build a huge gas plant inside Darwin's harbour.  This consisted of portable prefab blocks known as “dongas” and this facility is now called

Centre for National Resilience. Each block consists of four units. We were allotted adjacent units in H1-6 block as each unit can accommodate one person only. Only children are allowed to stay with parents.  The four units have a shared verandah and are self-contained.  Only there is no microwave oven and the electric kettle provided can be used for heating water only. Cooker and any other electrical appliance are prohibited.  Each room had air-conditioning and television.  Tea, coffee, sugar sachets and milk carton and disposable cups were also provided.

Police and soldiers patrol daily to ensure people wear masks and do not wander outside their verandah except for garbage disposal or visits to the laundry units.  But one can sit outside in the verandah and can enjoy the blue skies and the fresh air watching the trees and the birds or if one prefers have one’s work-outs anytime there.  One can also chat with the other persons in the block or the people in adjacent and opposite blocks from one’s verandah when no official is around.  It was really a beautiful sight to watch when the block’s yellow lights were turned on after sunset.

The problem we experienced was not only the restrictions in movements but also the food we were served.   Teams wearing personal ­protective gear and wheeling carts deliver packed food for the night, next day morning and afternoon in a single lot daily at about 5 p.m. which is left on the verandah to be collected by the inmates.  On our request we were given rice with dhal and vegan yoghurt for dinner and bread roll with butter and jam for breakfast on some days.  As for lunch it was mostly cold salad.  But there was a sweet dish and a fruit every day. The packets given by my niece at Delhi came in very handy to use in the place of the cold salad.  We also supplemented the dishes by getting banana bread, fruit yoghurt and muffins from local IGA store through online order which is allowed.  

We underwent Covid tests on day 1, 7 and 12.  Tests proving negative we were allowed to leave on the 14^th day.  Our son-in-law Kumar had already booked our flights to Sydney from Darwin.  We were taken to the Darwin regular airport by bus in the afternoon. We checked in and celebrated our release from quarantine with a cappuccino and raisin toast in boarding lounge and boarded our flight to Sydney.   Suchy met us at the Sydney airport and took us home to our great relief bringing to an end our journey through quarantine. 

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