Surviving the outbreak

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Editor's note: She didn’t want to die alone, carrying a stigma. So Ruqyya Bano, a 35-year-old social activist from Delhi, put thoughts of her children front and centre to beat back the novel coronavirus infection that threatened to take everything away. “There were a couple of times when I wanted to run away, end it all; it was becoming too much to handle,” says Bano about her May ordeal. “But then I thought about my children. It wouldn’t be fair to them. No matter what I did or how my life ended at that point, people would brand me, target my children, destroy my family.” In distant Bhagalpur, Bihar, unknown to her, Rashi V. was fighting her own battle. One against an apathetic healthcare system, where tests are hard to come by and doctors are quite clueless about treatment protocols. While both managed to make a total recovery, retired contractor Maqsood Alam Siddiqui, 60, wasn’t quite so fortunate. He continues to battle gastrointestinal problems and nausea four months on. Add hand tremors, extreme fatigue and muscular pain to the mix and he …