While the WHO (World Health Organisation is still learning about how Covid-19 affects people, older persons (e.g. persons over 60 years) and persons with pre-existing medical conditions, like high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, cancer or diabetes, appear to develop serious illness more often than others. In the light of this ongoing concern during the pandemic, Asian Voice spoke to elderly residents in the UK on how they’ve been coping with the testing times, as they continue to be vulnerable.
Jayati Das (71) from Hertfordshire said that she’s one of the few people in her neighbourhood who are not English. “People accepted me and did a lot for me. She says she’s been recently planting a lot of flowers like begonias and geraniums. “I’ve got quite a big garden. My whole house with a car park is about one third of an acre. I’m watering them. They need a lot of care as you know. I have got rid of a lot of clutter, I thought in my spare room there’ll be a dead body or two. I have got rid of a lot of paperwork and stuff I don't need. I’m scared to clean my loft. I have got a lot of maintenance done, somebody came and painted my shade, I got a lot done.” Das is a member of the patient panel and uses the Zoom app to join meetings. Her neighbour who has voluntary retirement has been doing all her shopping during the lockdown. “He is fixing my wood lock right now,” she said. Speaking about her pastime activities, Das said, “I do a lot of crosswords in the Daily Telegraph. It has been perfect. I am not much of a television person. I watch very little and lately the news has been pretty depressing. To survive, I watch what I want to watch.” She’s currently watching ‘Escape to the country’. Das says that her outlook is a lot more British than Indian. Speaking about one thing that she wishes to do amid the pandemic, she said, “I have got a flat in Kolkata, I would like to go to India, that is my escape from the winter. But this year I'm not sure. I had cancer, five years ago so I might be vulnerable. I’m not sure whether I can come or not, personally it is annoying me. Without the vaccine I don’t think I can. Calcutta worries me.” Das seemed content in where she’s living during the pandemic, “The beauty of where I live is that people are very polite and clean. I will give way to people if they are older than me, they will give way to me If I’m older. They are very law abiding people, polite and of course they know me, especially I do a lot of charity work, people go out of their way to help me,” she happily signs off.
70 year old Kanti Nagda advises people on healthcare benefits, housing, immigration, and matrimonial matters. He said, “For the first three weeks I was in complete lockdown, staying indoors, watching television, no work, nothing. After that, I started working from home. So I would spend half a day working and half a day watching television, reading books, going out for a walk.” Nagda appreciated the help he observed that was being offered at community level by organizations and doctors of the NHS. Speaking on the lesson one could learn from the pandemic, he said, “This is something which we have to accept the reality and live with it.” He also touched upon the rising rate of cases and rumoured language issues within the Asian community in Leicester and said, “Language was not a barrier. In fact the people in Leicester, particularly working in trade had no choice because they were paid peanuts. And if they did not go to work they would be starving, homeless, with no income. It wasn’t the language problem, it was the exploration by the factor owners.”
Suhas Khale, 79 said he used Facebook a lot to connect with his friends who belong to the political and non-political communities. He said he’s lucky to have his wife with him during the lockdown. He could spend some time in his house-garden and with his grandchildren who used to come to visit. “The only thing I missed is the cricket season. I miss my bridge game because you can’t play bridge with social distancing. The only thing that just happened is that I normally don’t have a drink but I started having one, every dinner time. I need no help from the NHS but one thing I miss is my private physiotherapist because I’ve got a slight arthritic problem,” said Khale. Because he has been involved in issues of equality and justice with the labour party in the UK and in India, he raised some funds. “I help to raise some funds for migrant workers with one of my political mentors,” he said. What he learnt particularly from billionaires during the pandemic is that they haven’t been speaking “about who is the richest but how they can help marginalised people”. “We got to have some sort of compassion and understanding of humanity and people at large. It is very sad that the indians don’t have a national healthcare system and infrastructure,” he added.
