#qurantine

But what if your actions slash at the heart of the one you intend to heal?

Tell them, too, what the life of this world is like: We send water down from the skies and the earth’s vegetation absorbs it, but soon the plants turn to dry stubble scattered about by the wind: God has power over everything.

Quarantine Diary Day 10: Qatar never looked as beautiful. Doha Corniche was splendid. Freedom!

The most exciting day was here. After the last test on Day 9, which took forever to get there, I was full of hope. The staff had come to test and the swabs were taken on Day 9.

Day 10 felt special. There were beautiful shade-providing soothing clouds in the sky. It was not piercing bright as usual. A nice message confirming a negative test result had arrived in the text format from MOPH at 7:40 am. At 8:00 am I called the main reception to ask if I could go since I had the negative PCR test result on my phone. She said the nurse had to issue the clearance certificate. I asked her to connect me to the nurse. The phone kept ringing for at least 15 minutes. I would not give up. Somewhere around 8:30 am a man with a printed paper came knocking on the door.

The menu selection guy called me and said if would have vegetable biryani or fish. I said I was hoping not to be there for lunch. He said OK, good luck to you sir.

It was a beautiful day indeed. The clearance certificate was issued. I was free to go. I gathered my things. There was a massive adrenaline rush at the thought of regaining my freedom. I didn't know what to do first.

Around 9 am I called the taxi, whose driver said he'd be there in 10 minutes. 10 minutes was fine with me. However, it took more than 30 minutes because the driver got lost in the construction and the unmarked hotel entrance. I wanted to take the elevator down to the main ground floor lobby reception and walk out to the street. The staff said that would not be possible and I'd have to go back to the basement.

Literally, the ground floor button did not work. The staff pressed B for me. I was again down a foul-smelling corridor toward the box check-in room. They had not fixed their sewage smell problem. The man in the room took my bag and sprayed it with some chemicals. The chemicals were dripping badly and I was hopeful would not leak and damage my clothing and electronics. In my mind, I wanted to tell him that this virus is not spread by contact but by inhaled airborne particles and I was not planning on inhaling my luggage nor should anyone else. But I knew just like everything else in Doha, he is simply taking orders from above and now allowed to deviate from protocols. I wanted to wait outside as I was uncertain if the cell signal would work in the basement.

To my pleasant surprise, it worked. I called the driver who had already done a singular one-way loop in front of the hotel. Finally, he came and we went out toward the beautiful corniche well-lit by the bright Doha sun.

Everything looked beautiful and new and clean. Literally, roads I have known were no longer there and new pathways awaited. We took the long scenic route home so I could inhale the newfound freedom.

It was great to return. Upon re-entering society, I had to decontaminate my clothes from the hotel-provided bedbugs so started by placing my clothes in the hot sun. I then used the highest temperatures for a wash.

The car would not start. I thought the solar charger had failed. Later I tried to jump it with the lithium power pack and then again with a friend's help. I had never had the battery die this badly. Not even jumping from other sources helped. Systems in the car were making strange computer vibratory sounds due to lack of power. I carefully turned things off. Called AAA the next day. They came with a heavy-duty starter pack. The car cranked, I went to buy a new battery to replace my dead one.