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My aunt (Masi) has her house in Nirsa. It’s a small city in Jharkhand. When lockdown was announced not much changed at that place. People were normally living their life. I did speak to my aunt over the phone and she shared stories about her neighbors with me. From her I got to know about her neighbor Shivani. Shivani is a resident of Nirsa, she has five members in her family. Mother, father, Shivani, her younger sister Shinu and their grandfather.

Family was living in peace but their condition changed when their grandfather was in Bihar and he got stuck at their relatives house when the lockdown was declared. He had to stay their for long what else could he do? There was no conveyance and no one knew when the lockdown would get over? 1-2 months later when the two wheeler were allowed on the roads due to any emergency, the relative dropped their grandfather back to Nirsa on his bike. The relative worked in Government Gramin Vikas yogna office, and he came to Nirsa for some work.

Shivani’s grandfather was very happy to come back home in Nirsa but after few days he got ill and was in a serious condition, he went under a treatment.

There were rumors, Shivani started hearing that her grandfather getting sick immediately after coming back from Bihar to Nirsa and he getting admitted in a hospital indicates something else. People said that definitely this person is corona positive and the family who are denying this are wrong. The family is definitely hiding something from everyone.

The problem increased when people started treating the grandfather as an untouchable only with a thought that he might be corona positive. Shivani and Shinu were mistreated. Shivani was in class 10th and Shinu was in 8th class, both of them went to study near their house only. They started going to study after lockdown only, but when their was a doubt that their family must effected with corona people started maintaining distance from them.

One day before entering the house where Shivani studied she stopped at the door, the mother of her teacher said from the distance that you both should stop coming here to study as you have corona virus at your home, you shouldn’t come back here.

Shivani hesitatingly said:- “No aunty my grandfather is sick but we don’t have corona virus in the house.”

Aunty said with her loud voice from the distance- “Is everyone outside your house lying? You go now and don’t come here to study from tomorrow.”

The teacher also said- You don’t come now here to study you go for now.

At that time two of the students who resided near buy entered the class to study one of them told Shivani and Shinu that their grandfather is having corona and everyone should stay away from them.

Shinu got furious and felt humiliated and said- “I don’t have corona at my house you must be having at your house.” Then Shivani stopped her sister from saying anything else, she thought it will lead to a fight. She took her sister’s hand and went straight back to home. Reaching back home Shivani started crying. Their mother asked what happened and Shinu told her the entire incidence. Their mother consoled them and said “I will talk to your teacher”.

Shivani’s father said no one has to go to study neither has to say anything to anyone until things get resolved. I kept asking to my aunt about the whereabouts of Shivani, I got to know that after few days of treatment Shivani’s grandfather lost his life.

After the news of their grandfathers death, Shivani’s whole neighborhood was in fear, the elderly people were worried and scared. More than that Shivani’s family was having a bad effect on themselves, people started saying that Shivani’s grandfather died because of Corona, that’s why the family members might also have got infected. People started spreading rumors.

People started avoiding going near to their house. They maintained distance from them. It got difficult for them to even go out and buy the essentials. People treated them as untouchables. One day Shivani’s mother sent her to the market to buy some goods but the shopkeeper refused to give her the needful. He also asked Shivani to go back. She was shocked and was angry, she told her mother “Don’t send me out of the house from now on.” People also asked Shivani’s father to stay at home and not to step out. The entire family had to stay in home because people suspected they all are infected. 

It crossed the limits when the police was called and the people said that if this infected family lived here it will be a risk for all of them. They also said that one of the family member died due to corona and they are all hiding themselves. They said if the family members step out of the house the others might get into trouble. No one was their to understand Shivani’s family. Police immediately barricaded their house. Shivani’s family was confined in the house. On one hand they were mourning on their grandfather’s death and on the other hand they had to face the allegations of the neighbor, people looked at them as guilty.  

One good thing happened that  the police asked Shivani’s family to get their corona tested. Then they went for the test and the report surprised everyone as the entire family was corona negative. Now it was time for the people to be surprised as they have spread the rumors and now they started thinking how could this be possible?

New rumors started as people said that maybe the family might have not been infected. Then Shivani’s grandfather’s report came which turned out to be negative as well. People were amazed and started thinking how could this be possible even?

Grandfather’s report said that he did not die because of corona but due to heart attack it wasn’t possible to save him. I heard the whole story from my aunt and then I said 

“When the report was clear, everyone’s heart got clear.” 

People removed the barricades quickly which surrounded Shivani’s house. Things were back to normal, people started to behave normally with their family again. People acted  as if nothing had happened, they also said that no one knew the truth and all of sudden all this happened so no ones brains were working properly, and neither could anyone understood.

Slowly the condition of Shivani’s house started to turn normal. One day their teacher called them and said Shivani and Shinu can come back to study. Shivani’s mother told the teacher “Without knowing anything you spoke to these children so badly, Shivani started to cry when she came back home. This impacted the brains of the child so badly!”

Shivani’s teacher started giving an explanation and said didn’t know something like this will happen.

Shivani’s father decided he wont send his daughters back to the same teacher for their studies. People had no answer for their wrong doings.  Neither was anyone sorry, few of them said we said what we felt like, thank god no one had a positive report. Shivani was irritated listening  to the same thing.

My aunt was very angry,  as people alleged the family falsely , she was worried about Shivani’s family.  When I heard this from my aunt I told her it reminded me of a song. “Kuch toh log Khenge logo ka kaam hai kehena” (People will say something, its their work to say).

I myself was surprised that corona has spread so much fear that people have become superstitious. Before even dying people assume that the reason of death is corona and their blindfolds only gets removed after seeing the report.  Shivani and Shinu had to face the people’s superstitiousness. I am proud to see their maturity and understanding.