The curious case of mistaken identity!

Times are really bad. The novel coronavirus has hit not just mortals and economies, it also hit human psyche and social behaviour hard.

While people are falling down dead in heaps and economies are crumbling fast, the normal life has totally metamorphosed to something that nobody imagined before the virus attack.

Migrant labourers walking barefoot to their hearths, small babies trying to wake their dead mothers on railway platforms, speeding goods trains running over on sleeping unsuspected migrants crushing their hopes and bones splattering blood, frontline warriors in the battle against the pandemic being denied their rights and treated inhumanely are making headlines every single day.

Scientists and other medical experts are toiling hard day in and day out to find a panacea for the pandemic and governments are trying to stop the microbe from spreading. Well, while all these are happening, the number of deaths and positive cases is skyrocketing by each passing day.

While this is so, people also seem to have learnt to accept the reality and live with it. Authorities have started easing lockdown norms, liquor outlets and temple doors have been opened for their devotees and finally, travel restrictions, as believed by this columnist, also have been lifted and non-resident white callers started searching for ideal dates to go back to their native States.

And here, at this stage, this columnist's travails begin. As flight operators cancelled their domestic services, his mother's dream of travelling by flight for the first time in her life to Hyderabad where this columnist lives, came a cropper as the lockdown began by the second half of March.

Her ticket was booked on March 25. Since lockdown, she was confined to her home all alone as neither she was allowed to go to her offspring scattered elsewhere (she is 78-years-old) nor anyone could come out to visit her for such a 'silly'reason.

Long days of wait continued until Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that nobody would require any pass for interstate travel on May 30 during his fifth instalment of the world's largest lockdown.

And as a media professional who works at the desk of an English daily, this writer insisted his colleagues to put this piece of information on a box highlighting it in bold letters!

Relieved at the Prime Minister's largesse, he planned to set out to Kerala in his own self driven car with his nephew who is also a resident of Hyderabad.

And on the second day of June, both of them started their journey by road with gay abandon as they were going to meet the incarcerated mother-grandmother at last.

Things were fine until they crossed the States of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka en route, but their plans went awry when they reached Veerajpet, a serene township in the district of Coorg. By the time they reached there, it was almost 6.30 pm and it was getting dark.

The actual plan was to take Veerajpet-Kannur road through Makkutta, the border. But when they stopped to buy some water and other essentials, the shopkeeper told them it was impossible to go that route as all the border roads were closed by dumping heaps of mud.

Alas! Night curfew would begin at 9 pm and they were not allowed to travel after that. In fact, their hometown Iritty was just 20 kilometres away through Makkutta and since all border roads were closed, they had no way to go anywhere.

However, they had to find refuge in a cranny of the RTC bus stand and slept inside the car even as heavy downpour was lashing outside.

The next day, before dawn, they resumed their journey to reach Muthanga, one of the only two border roads open to Kerala, the other being Valayar.

After a long and winding journey through the Bandipore Wildlife Sanctuary, they reached Muthanga by afternoon, only to be bluntlyasked to leave the place as they were not allowed to go inside the State at all without a pass!

This columnist explained the situation but they were unwilling to listen. After much pleading they allowed them to continue the journey but warned of stricter checking in the next few checkpoints.

And it so happened that they were quizzed and details collected at five other different points and finally they were screened for the entry. Everything was fine, but every time they asked why ill-treatment despite knowing the facts, the answer was: "We have orders."

Knowing what was in store for them by now, he called up his mother (to see whom he took all the risk) and asked her to leave the house immediately and go to her daughter's house as nobody should be at home when they arrived. They reached by evening and somehow settled at home only to witness worse things unfolding the next day.

In the first hour, the police came and took the details and then left a load of instructions. Then came the health workers who ridiculed their folly to come to Kerala at the testing times.

When requested if they could undergo a Covid-19 test and then go back, the health workers laughed at them and said even stepping out of room would invite criminal charges! Local leaders, panchayat member and a whole lot of well-wishers started calling this columnist hinting at the possible dangers if stepped out of home.

All these, despite the fact that in those villages, houses are situated apparently at a considerable distance! More policemen, more phone calls and outside the home, where they didn't have access, more stories of new Covid-19 patients sneaked into the village spread far and wide!

After three days of ordeal, some good-hearted officer from the capital called this columnist up and told that all these scares were created by his own good neighbourhood.

And she spilled the beans! If the ward member felt that this forced quarantine was just unnecessary, she could say the same thing to the local police and this columnist could go back to his place at his own will!

Meanwhile, this columnist got a call from the local inspector telling him that it was all a 'mistaken identity' and he could leave the place!

And this columnist left no chances, took his bags and baggage and fled the spot along with his nephew at rocket speed! May God bless 'his own country'!