Having arrived in India to be with her ailing mother, Shruti A did not know she would go through such difficult times. She lost her mother, and also found herself to be COVID positive. Here she shares her battle with COVID-19 and how she managed to keep her spirits high during the tough time. Read onI never thought I would sit down to write this, given the private person that I am. But I will remember 2020, the year of the pandemic and I was one of the 27.9 million cases. I was visiting India due to my mother’s emergency condition and it was also during this time that my mother breathed her last. After my mandatory quarantine (post international travel), I and my family were fortunate to perform her last rites and after a week or two, I started helping my father and brother with regaining momentum with their routine.It was also during this time, the paranoia bit me and although we three were maintaining healthy habits like regularly drinking herbal tea, taking supplements and had no suspicious symptoms, I insisted on scheduling a covid test (rtPCR) as a precautionary measure. It was the morning of September 8, when my morning customary coffee was interrupted by a phone call. The voice on the other side said, ‘You’ve been tested covid positive’… That very news shook me to the core, and I exclaimed, “I am Covid positive???”I remember crying to my partner, brooding over why and how I contracted this despite following all safety measures. As unbelievable and dreadful as it was, it was the truth. I had to only find peace in the fact that my father (65) and brother (24), were negative.I had to immediately isolate myself from my family and since I was asymptomatic, I could choose a private hotel. Cut to 12 pm, I am in my hotel room, anxious as to how my next 10 days would look. In the meantime, I also reached out to my relatives and close friends informing them of the same. I tried to keep my morale high and told myself ‘You’re covid positive, but congratulations, you’re asymptomatic, and there’s only one way out, just get OUT OF IT!!’