HOME ALONE
Snigdha Sarkar, 84, rushes to the balcony every time she hears a car stop outside her house in Jodhpur Park in South Kolkata. Disappointed to see a stranger alight from the cab, she transfers her gaze to the sky, tracing the flight path of an eagle she mistakes for an airplane, until it disappears behind a cloud. She is glad to see a plane because these days she can’t hear planes flying overhead or trains whistling in the distance. “Covid has taken a toll on my health,” she says. “As it is, my eyesight was bad. Now, I can’t hear properly either. I am glad Rajesh [Satpathi, manager of TriBeCa Elderly Care Services in Kolkata] told me flights to India have resumed, otherwise I would have kept worrying that Babu [her son who lives in Canada] might not be able to reach me when my time comes.”
Covid has been
