An Oral History of the COVID-19 Crisis: 'My single aim was to reach home in whichever way possible'

Anindya Roy, 28, is Mumbai-based corporate lawyer. He’s presently in his hometown, Kolkata.

On 24 March, when the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown was imposed, I was in my rented apartment in Mumbai. Three days later, I woke up to frantic calls from my relatives… to the news that my father had passed away due to a heart attack the previous night, sometime between 1 and 2 am. I had slept off by then, so I did not know about it. The next morning [when I found out>, the only thing I could think of was how to get back home and be with my family.

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So I approached a lot of people — all the contacts I had, all my friends; I even went to the local police station. Nobody had any idea about how one could reach Kolkata at that time, because it [the lockdown and pandemic> was all very new and novel, and people didn’t know how to react to something so unprecedented. There were no flights or trains operating at that time, all state borders were closed.

Finally, a friend — a journalist — put me in touch with someone from the government, and they procured a pass for me, which I could use to get out of Maharashtra. Without thinking much, my friend (whom I live with in Mumbai) and I decided to take another friend’s car and drive to Kolkata, because there was no other way, to put it simply.

FirstCulture · Anindya Roy

So we had that one pass with which we started off, and the major concern along the way was that even if we were able to leave Maharashtra, whether or not the other states would let us in. We faced a lot of stress during that time, but finally managed to reach Kolkata after going through Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha. Along the way, a lot of my friends came through and they helped me get in touch with IAS officers, who also helped procure passes, or at least spoke to officials at the borders to allow me to pass, as mine was a genuine case.

I am sure if it was a journey undertaken for other reasons, we would’ve found the situation scary, but for me at that time, my singular aim was to reach home whichever way possible. I was honestly mentally too exhausted at the time to feel any other emotion, besides thinking about how my father had just left us.

In a way, it was a very unique experience which made me realise that when pushed to the brink, human beings can toughen up and do a lot of things that they otherwise won’t do in life. People all over the world have been trying to cope with the pandemic, but for me personally, the lockdown has granted me time to spend at home with my family, which I otherwise would not get in any other scenario.

— As told to Arshia Dhar

Write to us with your COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown experiences for inclusion in the Oral History Project at firstculturefeatures@gmail.com