It was a perfect morning. I had a good sleep. I was fresh and energetic. I had many new plans to make my last 4 days of quarantine productive but uncertainty had become a norm for me since I had left Chandigarh on 5 March 2020.

I got to know that mess of the Jat Bhawan hasn’t opened and it will remain so till the end of nation wide lockdown. I checked my baggage and I was left with 2 packs of Little Hearts biscuits which was not sufficient for 2 persons even as snacks. Though I am very conscious about my diet, still I searched for options of online food delivery applications to get food delivered to my room. Services of all such applications were temporarily unavailable. I saw a ray of hope in Domino’s Pizza app but it vanished when I couldn’t finish my order.

I called few persons out of desperation and necessity before getting to reach the right person. I explained whole situation to Sunil Raj, Head Therapist and incharge of Chandigarh Spinal Rehab. He immediately came into action for my rescue and devised an innovative plan with me to keep my quarantine intact till the end of it.

As backside gate of the rehabilitation center was closed till further notice, all roommates of my room were shifted to other wards. I just had to reach that room directly without getting in the contact of any other person or surface while wearing mask and gloves.

We packed our things and moved directly towards our room propelling wheelchair. I had come out to the road after 10 days and it seemed a totally different world to me. Complete stretch of road visible to me was silent. Buzz and chaos was gone. I was getting feeling that I am inside a virtual reality game on doomsday. 

Thanks to smooth roads of Chandigarh, I was able to propel my wheelchair for the distance of approx 600 meters without huffing and puffing. Yes it seems a very short distance but it’s literally like heavy workout for a person with quadriplegia if done continuously.
Finally we reached to our room. At last I had reached to my second home. We unpacked our things and arranged whole room. My next goal was ensuring that I don’t get into direct or indirect contact of any person in the rehabilitation center.

I asked my caregiver to keep an abandoned plastic table in front of the door of our room. After that I gave orientation to nursing staff of the rehabilitation center about how to leave food over that table without touching anything nearby so that they can give orientation to other support staffs.

Process of serving food for us was as follows

Step 1 : Leaving a drum of drinking water over the table

Step 2 : Leaving 2 plates, one dishwash and scrubber

Step 3 : Calling from outside room to bring plates to serve foods without entering 

Step 4 : My caregiver will leave plates over the table maintaining a distance of 4 feet

Step 5 : A person serving food will serve food

Half of the problem got sorted out and again the day was saved.