Author: sudesna

While every winter since 2020 has brought waves of COVID, this winter was looking bright. So, speaking for many Indian travelers who stayed indoors, followed COVID appropriate rules, wore masks, took their booster doses- for some, almost a year back- went ahead to make plans for a short holiday. Abroad.

Days of planning, months in advance, saving and budgeting stays wherever possible, applying for leaves at work, rethinking plans seeing the flight costs, still booking with even more cost to allow flexibility, and to be able to apply for Visa, gathering paperwork for the Visa, Visa will get approved or not fears, are some of the few things that’ll ate one’s head till the date of the journey.

Then of course, COVID graphs HAD to start increasing across all places. News outlets made sure, what peaks weren’t looked at twice mid-August for a certain country (not China), were in the spotlight, along with Christmas and New Year news.

While the fearful feeling was mutual back in 2020, when folks were returning from various nations, and spreading the COVID in cities by just being careless, like when they got the seasonal flu, this time it wasn’t the same feeling.

Vaccines were either enough, or not, I can’t say, but many took the shots. Many gave up after 2nd, and didn’t bother with the third. Some got the COVID after getting the vaccinations, we say it wasn’t severe because the vaccine was present.

Whatever the case, COVID severity reduced over time, normal life resumed. Masks off, sneezing coughing as usual, etc. Even if COVID was in circulation, who would know, not all get tested for cold symptoms. And from experience, COVID RT PCR test doesn’t detect the viral load at the beginning of the infection. So negative RT PCR result is very much possible.
It could be normal cold. What’s wrong in spreading that right? School kids, folks in offices, any closed spaces- easily get some infected. It then spreads. Societies have many homes coughing. They recover. Life goes on.

So yes, coming back to travel plans and the feeling not being mutual.
This time it was us making the trip. And returning and scaring fellow Indians.
Since cases are clearly increasing across various countries, should the trip be cancelled? Even with flexible booking cost, IT IS NOT CHEAP TO CANCEL, monetary and mental health wise!

So while sticking to the original plan, our own country too stuck to the original plan- perform COVID RT-PCR test for people returning from high risk nations before the board the flight.

So, we know Aarogya Setu, COWIN, etc helped us get vaccine. Nearby hospital will come and take sample, and get the RT PCR report ready in a day. All this doesn’t happen outside India.

Different country, different rules. Different language. Not a touristy location. Where is the testing center? Anything in English is at a much much much higher cost. If you are a tourist especially and not a resident.

And if an itinerary is made already, to get a test done at one location, and to be in the same place may or may not have been in the original plan. Then there is also the gap between the test date and flight travel date, since only up to 72 hours prior RT PCR negative report is only going to be approved.

People will say, like they categorize all abroad travelers into super wealthy billionaires- it isn’t hard to get the test done, it must be cheap for you if you can afford a trip abroad, etc.

While more than a billion lives are at stake, thanks to international travelers, and since it cannot be stopped, owing to some of the hard hit sectors, and many other reasons, a provision to do the test on the returning passengers in India itself would cost so much less for the Indian travelers. And it would serve the purpose of containing the spread by knowing the test result ,for sure, in our own country itself.

Some countries it costs Rs. 16000-30000 /- for a single person’s RT-PCR test. Many travel as a family, it would cost so much more. Whereas in India it is ~Rs. 1000/-. We would get to be home. Isolate at home. We speak as folks who have listened to all advices given during pandemic.

Please don’t treat such a tourist as a monster for wanting to travel, something a million others are doing across the world, within our country, where the virus is already present, in which all mutations, we entirely cannot know.

Else, like the title of this topic says, International Holiday for Indians on Tight Budget Becomes Costly in 2023.

PS- It is an opinion. Please respect freedom of speech, and don’t use the excuse to retort with vile and foul language. Have a nice year ahead.

How it began:

I did want a dog at first, because, you can say, I had many before. Having been brought up in a lesser crowded- same city/ town in the past, the strays were my best buddies growing up. Plenty of space for them to roam, us to play with them, it was heaven.

Fast forward present:

City grew, and exploded. Not an inch of space that isn’t concrete. Okay not deviating.

After moving into an apartment complex, the gated community meant, hard to access streets dogs. Made me really miserable. Also having a pet dog felt difficult. It was injustice towards it, at least I felt so, our streets far too dangerous for a pet to walk, let alone a person. Dug up every other day, endless vehicular traffic, no place called a sidewalk, and unfortunately, strays who could get unfriendly towards our pet. My new family were against it as well, as they had a pet, and her passing made them so miserable, they swore they wouldn’t go through the trauma again. PS- And they felt I wouldn’t be able to manage having one.

Cats on the other hand are smaller, and can do without walks unlike dogs. They can do their business at home, and it doesn’t get more convenient than that. Expression of their affection, was, however, a bit different when compared with a dog. I did interact with stray/ free to roam pet cats before, it wasn’t bad. Just dogs pamper us more, and it held me and my husband back.

Still, I visited pet adoption groups, and slowly started inclining towards owning a pet soon. A cat would do. I needed animal interaction, or my existence would be for nothing. All cats were cute, but I was looking for a black cat. Reason? I have seen them portrayed so cutely and snobbishly in some of the animes I’ve watched. Also the real heart stopper are those magnificent images doing rounds on the web- Of The Black Panther. Golden eyes contrasting starkly with the shiny velvety black fur. And I like the whole western black cat, pumpkin thingy they do for their Halloween. Magical!

So, it may seem so many unadopted cats/ kittens can be found easily, black kitten abandoned because they are ugly, etc. but no. Finding a cat for adoption is harder than it seems.

I will speak from my P.O.V. for now. Persons who are giving away cats can be nasty. Some. Not all. They start off asking if I have had cats before. I haven’t. So I’m rejected. How will I have if I can’t be given one??!! Every owner would have had a first. I don’t want to buy a fancy kitten!

Next is – why doesn’t your balcony have nets. Our genuine reason is that our plants, and we would suffocate. I tried assuring them that I wished to help my very first pet cat learn to stay away from balcony and the height. But no, person says, cats are stupid and will jump off to their death. Okay I understand this can happen. But so can a cat run out of the front door. None of the people giving cats for adoption, use nets on their front door, do they? I was turned away by a cat rescuer for this reason. (PS- she came back later asking if I’m still willing after I’d adopted Kuro. Irony.)

And there are the really annoying moderators or admins who have nothing better to do during their day. Besides assuming every rescuers has loads of money to shell, any post, asking for kittens to get adopted, is blindly asked to neuter the parent cat. As if its cheap to visit a vet. And not everyone lives next to an NGO doing it for less cost.

Next any post on the adoption groups, especially for a black kitten, are met with lecturing asking the author to not give without doing background check, people use for black magic, etc. Here also I understand, but their negativity on every post, is making non- believers actually start believing there is darkness in owning a black cat. If they can share positivity that they are beautiful, it will not only subdue the power of negative thoughts, people will actually look at them in better light. And what background checks can be done by a normal individual without invading ones privacy? Will you ask- do you perform black magic, or visit there house looking for some ritual residue from earlier? What answer do you expect? Or judge a person based on their upbringing that – okay you dress well, so you aren’t superstitious? Or they don’t speak good English so they might be from a village so they are definitely capable for dark activity? The only thing the nay-Sayers are achieving is planting doubt in the author’s mind, and thereby rejecting all potential adopters because something might be off.

Ironically, black kittens, do have a fan following, may be the black panther appearance, so there are some shady rescuers/ breeders, looking for money, as their posts are less informative and responses sounds like- I have many people reaching out to me, what can you offer in terms of money?

So after dealing with picky rescuers, breeders, I had given up on actually finding myself a pet to give a loving home. Later on, I’d just ask- is the kitten looking for a home-without expecting a response.

One such post was the same, the kitten looked really battered. And I even thought should I? Showed my husband, and he too knew no response would be positive.

But. The rescuer was happy with me reaching out to her, amidst all responses saying don’t give the black cat without checking, they do black magic, etc. She did ask if I had any pet before, and I said I interacted with plenty of strays, but hadn’t owned a cat. And I didn’t have balcony nets, even though she hadn’t asked, because, she could deny accordingly.

She said its alright, she was more worried about re-homing the lost kitten as her own cats were acting weird having her around. She gave me lots of encouraging information and advice on taking care of the kitten, she was really small and fragile.

We hoped we could adopt her after few more weeks, as it coincided with a short holiday we had coming up in a week or so. My husband was ready to cancel to trip for the new kitten, but I knew his work gets so hectic, that without a short break, he would have a mental breakdown, and everything else would get affected. But then the rescuer herself was traveling around the same time, her cats would be in a boarding home then. We chose to take her in before the trip itself, as, even though, her cats wouldn’t harm the kitten, rescuer seemed worried for them, and would give the kitten to someone else.

So luckily they were traveling towards our area in a two days, so that saved us the trouble of traveling across the city, which I dreaded.

Having never receiving any positive responses over a year, this happened so quickly. We did order in some kitten food, some litter, and picked up our new kitten in a roti maker box. We aren’t pet owners, so slowly pet related things fill ones house, not all in one day.

Kuro, I knew I would call her that, was puny, and her voice raspy. Maybe all the crying for her mother for day and night, hurt her voice box. She was frightened, but some food, peaked her interest. She was still less than two months, so food digestion was a bit of a struggle, even though her appetite was huge. She was so sweet and disciplined to use a litter box to do her pooping. We touched her only if she was comfortable and kept her in our room to not confused her with the house layout initially. She slept by to foot of our bed of her own will. Her milk supplement did come in eventually, and we visited the vet the next day as her stools weren’t formed and was leaking. Vet helped with some probiotics, stool firmer, and some tests to help access her condition.

Her vaccinations, de flea-ing and de worming slowly started. We were getting used to her and painfully had to keep her at a boarding, in less than two weeks, due to our travel. It was not confirmed if her health didn’t improve. We found a boarding home of a cat loving person who had two rescues of her own. I took Kuro there, and being a baby, she was too busy exploring the new place. After giving her food and litter, I left to pack for our travel, heavy at heart. But it worked out. We traveled, Kuro made new cat friends, and was so comfortable during her stay at the boarding home. Our regular video and message updates, kept our minds at ease.

On returning, she was little skeptical for about half an hour, but remembered slowly and resorted to her skittish, playful hungry self. Watch her be a baby.

It is unreal. We had been blessed with Kuro and as the days go, now it’ll be two months that she has been with us. Each day she is teaching us, that she is content, we are content. She has grown from mere 700 grams to a health 2 kilos. Bless Kuro. Her heat cycle has started, but that’s for another day.