It was the worst of times but also, at least for a few, the best of times.
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For Jakia Sultana, the lockdowns were a "blessing". Jyoti Rahman says "the pandemic has been good for me!" But for Alvina: "I really thought I was entering certain death."
As the pandemic wanes, it may already seem like some weird experience from another life. Did all that really happen?
It did, and a group of Canberrans with migrant backgrounds have put their reflections together in a moving collection, Writing in the time of COVID, compiled and published by a Canberra charity, SiTara's Story.
Some of the reflections are heartbreaking and some of them are uplifting.
Take Fahmida, whose grandfather died in Bangladesh. A friend of hers also died.
"Mental health, as a result, was at an all time low," she says. "I came face to face with my self doubt, worthlessness and helplessness.
"I fell into the worst depression I experienced in 12 years. I was unable to get up from bed and had many suicidal thoughts. I lost my purpose and meaning of life, as my dreams crumbled. I was desperate to go to Bangladesh but I couldn't."
Despite all that, she came out of the pandemic resolved to be positive. She gained insight from touching the depths. "The pandemic shut humanity down. It took away liberties. It destroyed communities and monumentally changed how we would live our lives. But I am not giving up."
She made a list of things she wanted to do - and then started doing them, from taking up martial arts to teaching yoga.
She is thoughtful: "I guess what the pandemic has given me is finding bits of courage in times when I believed I was unable, undeserving or unworthy of life. It taught me lessons which I would be carrying with me for the rest of my life. Every step I took and decision I made brought me a little closer to the light."
The truth is the pandemic has been good for me!
- Jyoti Rahman
Jo Kamira's daughter, Ngioka, had just started a gap year in London when the pandemic struck. The mother remembers the scene at a Woden travel agency as families tried to work out how to be reunited.
"One mother was in tears because her son was in Peru and all the borders had shut. Another had a daughter in Canada and was desperately trying to book a flight to get her home."
In the end, they did get a flight and their daughter finally emerged from "arrivals".
"Ngioka appeared in full PPE pushing her bags on a trolley. I did manage to take a few photos and when we look at them now, she is frowning at me, telling me not to take the photo."
People learnt to work from home - and many found they liked it. Jyoti Rahman had to do Zoom calls not only with Australians, but with people in different time zones all over the world.
"Yes, it played havoc with sleep, and snacking had become a problem.
"But the trade-off has been well worth it. By the time the second lockdown hit in August 2021, I had begun my transition toward a more flexible life."
"As part of the so-called 'Great Resignation', I am pursuing further studies and working as a freelancer, backed up by the security provided by the housing boom.
"The truth is the pandemic has been good for me!"
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Jakia Sultana feels the same. She had been constantly working for twelve years.
"I started feeling that the lockdown has come to me as a blessing," she said.
"Lockdown made me calm and stable."
She went for contemplative walks, and started baking cakes for the first time in her life.
"I need that pause in my life. We all need that little pause button," she said.
"I fondly remember dancing with my daughter in the kitchen, perfecting the routine over and over, because what else does one do?
"Days and emotions came and passed in waves. Some were good and some were downright lonely, horrifying, unfair and confusing."
Everybody seems to have come out of the pandemic as a different person. There were lessons.
"Do the things you enjoy now and not wait for the future," is the first of Sahejin Siddiqui's conclusions.
Her second lesson is: "As an introvert, I am more than happy to stay at home and not have any social contact. But after maintaining social distancing in real life and online, I was amazed to realise how social interactions enrich our lives. Connecting with not only friends and family but even random people that we may never meet again, these interactions matter, each and every one of them."
And finally: "It made me think of our frailty, the insignificance of our lives and just how each and every small act of kindness matters. If each of us can try and be a little bit kinder, it will have a ripple effect and we will be left with a kinder world."
Jyoti Rahman found some humility. His politics softened. "I had been a card-carrying neo-liberal for a quarter of a century, recommending liberalising, deregulating, and privatising. I had been sceptical of efforts towards a more egalitarian society," he said.
"But the pandemic has taught me to be humble about the role of luck in human affairs, and thus the need for a more empathetic society. May the legacy of the pandemic be humility and empathy."
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