Baby and the Pandemic : Who Stole My  World?

Chapter 1   My Birth

My name is Alira. I will be six months old in two weeks. I am glad that I was born into this world. I lived inside my mother for nine months and ten days. From a tiny spark of life, I am growing into a cute baby. I would have looked different at birth. Imagine how squeezed I was in my mother’s watery womb, with a pipe connecting my navel to my mother for oxygen and nourishment. When emerging from the womb through the birth canal, I was further squeezed. My umbilical cord was removed, and I was cleaned up. I came out to face the world. In a few days, I grew into a chubby, gurgling baby.

My mother and father were excited when they saw me coming out. My mother might have felt a sense of relief. She had carried me and nourished me for nine long months. She had forsaken a lot of comforts for my sake. Several ‘aunties’ dressed in blue helped my mother and me. One of them took charge of cleaning me. She dressed me in soft white clothes covering my entire body. I felt a little funny because I had never been covered before.

No one came to see me except my father. My brother did not come to see me. There were no flowers or gifts which I expected visitors to leave on my bed. I did not hear the banter of visiting uncles and aunts swapping their own experiences of receiving their children at birth. Who prevented them from coming to see me? Who stole those moments of the happiness that was my right?

Did no one except my mother and father like my arrival? What wrong had I done?

Lying in my mother’s womb, I had counted each passing day, looking forward to the beautiful moment when I would be helped out. I knew from my mother that there was a marvelous world outside. She told me that I had my father and a brother in my family. There were also my grandparents, a lot of uncles and aunties, and a lot of cousins.

 As I was growing inside my mother, my father would run his hand over her stomach and feel my life. I liked it when he kissed me through my mother’s stomach. My brother would hug me, placing his face on my mother’s stomach and calling me “Baby Boo”! Then all of them - my mother, father and brother - started to call me “Baby Boo”. They gave me a name without seeing me.

“Mom, when is Baby Boo coming out to play with me?”, My brother would ask. Mother would tell him that I was expected to join them shortly. She would add that Baby Boo would be too small to play with.

“Oh!”, My brother would say, “OK. But can I hold her?” Mother would say, “Of course. She can sit on your lap when she grows up a bit.” I thought my brother was disappointed, but he did not say anything.

“Baby Boo has started kicking.” I heard my mother telling the family another time. Suddenly, there was excitement. My father came over and tried to feel my movements with his hand. I did not kick him. He felt disappointed. My brother put his face over me, but I did not kick him either.

I was excited. There were people outside, waiting for my arrival. I passed my days in great anticipation. I listened to the conversations of many people - those who visited our home and the others whom my family visited.

I loved my family out there - my mother who was holding me inside, my father who would run his hand over me whenever he could, and my brother who would call out “Baby Boo”. That was my family. I was in a tearing hurry to come out and join them.

My mother would tell me about the world. There were trees with green leaves, lush grass that covered the ground around our house, and birds that chirped. Sometimes she would talk about a flock of birds that had descended on the grass. Mother would tell me that they were looking for food. I would listen without seeing anything. I understood some and I did not understand some. But I had already learned a lot of things from my mother.

Sometimes, mother would take me to the back yard beyond the place where everyone sat at a table to eat. Mother would talk about roses, which she explained, had soft petals and smelled heavenly. She pointed out lilies with clustered flowers. There was daphne with white flowers which were about to open. She told me about a lot of other flowers and plants.

Then she told me about the quails. These were birds which a friend had given her. There were four, but one flew away and never returned. Mother looked everywhere. She inquired with the neighbors. She sent a message to her WhatsApp group. No one had seen the quail. It was never found. I did not understand what quails were. She said they were birds. I did not know what a bird was either. But I felt sad. Mother had asked “How will that quail survive without the company of the other three? Who will feed it?” Mother told me that she fed the birds with grains and special feed bought from a shop. How would that lost one get grain and special feed? Would someone hurt it?

Talking about food, everyone seemed to enjoy it. I was curious. It seemed they ate a lot of things. Sometimes it was rice, pizza, chicken, fish and this and that. I felt sorry for them for the trouble they were taking several times a day cooking and eating. I wondered why they were doing it. Maybe, I would do the same when I joined them.

My mother would talk about clothes and many things she had collected for my use when I arrived. She knew I was a girl. My father and brother also knew. Mother would tell me about the singlets, bodysuits and blankets. She told me that I was arriving in the winter, so I needed to wear warm clothes.

Periodically, my parents took me to the doctor. The doctor would feel me, press me and tell my mother that I was doing great. I was growing well. He advised my mother to exercise. Walk. That was funny! I thought she was walking a lot at home.

Whenever I went out, the noise troubled me. Mother would talk about cars. I understood that cars on the road made the noise. She was always protecting me, sitting beside my father, who was driving. My brother had a special seat – a baby seat. Mother would talk about a baby seat that was already bought for me to sit on. I wondered how I would sit. But I was excited.

With all my anticipation and excitement, when I arrived, what I saw was a pall of gloom cast over the entire world.

I am so happy to be in this world. But the people in the world seem not happy. They are worried because they are now ruled by an evil king called COVID-19. He came from a place called Wuhan, a city in a province of a country called China. When he was born, his name was Corona. He is a virus. Four months before I was born, this evil king appeared in Wuhan. He gave people a respiratory illness. People got fever and headache. They got pain in their throats. Many people died.  People found that this virus had its origin in North Dakota in the United States of America long time back.