Waiting

I deplaned in Delhi after 14 hours in the air and was hit with some bad news: I needed to show that I was Covid-negative to leave the airport. I could show test results no more than 96 hours old, or I could take a test there, and wait as many as six hours more for the all clear. I retrieved from my bag a wrinkled printout of an old test. It convinced the porter but the not the second level of scrutiny -- a man seated with a string of men at a foldout table reviewing passenger documents. He pointed to his own wrinkled printout, which stipulated the 96-hour rule, circling the number twice. I thought about making a scene; I was a white American woman. It wouldn't be a great surprise to anyone to see tears running into my face mask, after all. But I couldn't do it. As much of an inconvenience as it would be, I was glad India had such a system in place, however belatedly. It would have been fine, too, if they'd stopped me in such a way nine months ago, when I stepped off a plane from Bangkok as the virus was crossing southeast Asia. But then a fever gun was the only thing between freedom and me. Soon the virus was all over India. I hadn't brought it in, but other passengers had, others who may have been stopped by a rapid test and quarantine. So I followed the line of other unfortunates. We registered and paid 5,000 rupees. One by one, we approached a man in PPE in a booth, who stuck one swab into my mouth and another up my nose so far that my eyes watered. The new normal. I was then directed to a place to leave my luggage and receive a wristband, on which was written my assigned seat. Polyester lounge chairs, the kind found in airport lounges everywhere, were set up six feet apart with small tables and outlets for charging phones. After a while, another man in PPE brought us light cardboard trays of dinner - a steaming heap of rice, delicious roti, dal and chicken curry. Later he returned with freshly made chai. I watched the election postmortem. We would wait here just like travelers in China and Thailand and South Korea had many months ago when they were stomping out the virus. Near 3 a.m., another man in PPE brought me my result: negative. I used it to retrieve my passport and luggage, and wander into the smoggy night.