Indian community: ‘We just have to be positive’
Members of the Taranaki Indian community can only look on as the subcontinent nation’s daily Covid-19 cases continue to rise.
On Sunday, India reported 403,738 confirmed Covid-19 cases, including 4092 deaths. By contrast, Taranaki has a population of just 122,700.
One woman has recently returned to New Plymouth from India after helping her near80-year-old mother prepare for a potential ‘‘third wave’’.
Sangeeta Chaudhari, wife of Taranaki Chamber of Commerce chief executive Arun, is currently in MIQ after spending five months in Mumbai. Her mother ‘‘couldn’t do much’’ in 2020 due to her age restricting her movements, so Sangeeta went over in December.
‘‘She feels quite secure – I’ve stocked up enough for a year at least.’’
Sangeeta said the number of Covid-19 cases started to grow in March. ‘‘Mum was stronger than I was.’’
Where she was, essential items such as food can be bought between 7-11am, chemists and medical services are open all day, and public transport is operating at half capacity. ‘‘I double masked, I didn’t take any transport,’’ Sangeeta said. ‘‘It’s also
luck, you just don’t know.’’
It was hard leaving her mother, who does not have any other family nearby, she said.
However, Sangeeta said other cities were worse off, with higher death rates. ‘‘I can’t see any
improvement, as such, but it will happen, it will just take time,’’ she said. ‘‘No-one could be prepared for something like that.’’
Sangeeta and her mother stayed with Arun’s 92-year-old father earlier this year.
Arun said his father has Covid-19 and had been on oxygen until Sunday. He admitted it was hard watching from afar, but believed his father, and the situation, would improve.
‘‘He’s in very good health,’’ Arun said. ‘‘The thing is, we just have to be positive. It will go away.’’
Overall, as of Sunday, India had more than 22 million confirmed infections and 240,000 deaths. Experts say both figures are undercounts.
Aakriti Nahar, who oversees international students at the Western Institute of Technology (Witt), speaks to her family back in the northern Indian city of Amritsar on the phone every day.
Nahar said it had gone from a few cases a day to Covid being ‘‘in their street – it’s in their block’’.
‘‘It’s so depressing,’’ the 26-year-old said.
‘‘My dad has lost two of his cousins.’’
Nahar moved to Taranaki in
2019 to study and had planned to head home to see her family during Easter 2020. The visit did not happen because of lockdown.
She constantly tells her family to be careful and leave the house as little as possible, but her father owns a construction business.
‘‘You don’t know what is really happening there.’’
She said she was told there are labourers ready to work every day. ‘‘Dad was saying the other day, if people don’t die of Covid, they will die of hunger. They’re struggling.’’
Geetha Kutty, who has called New Zealand home for more than
20 years, said it had been difficult watching what was happening where so many of her loved ones live.
Kutty, coordinator of Migrant Connections Taranaki, said she kept in regular contact with her sisters in India and friends.
‘‘We have a very close-knit family. Their children are like my children,’’ Kutty said. ‘‘I’m happy that they are safe, that they’re taking care.’’
She said it was hard that she hadn’t been home for more than two years, but those who are there have ‘‘no freedom’’.
‘‘They can’t have a normal life like before,’’ she said. ‘‘We are happy to be here. We are lucky to be here.’’