Noida: From sealing the first society where a Covid case was reported, to sending thousands of migrant workers home and having a baby in the middle of a pandemic – almost every day in the past one year brought in new challenges for Rajeev Rai.“I will not forget this in my life. I had no working hours. I would be out in the field all day, come home for dinner, leave again and be out till about 3 am. I have never had an office assignment this taxing,” says Rai, the then sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Dadri.

He had a daughter on April 6. But since Rai was in the frontline, he could not go near the child for almost six months. At home, his wife was recovering and needed help.

“Things were very difficult for her. Because of the lockdown, we did not have any house help. She had to manage the house, cook and take care of our children all by herself,” Rai says. The couple has another daughter who is nine now. “I was helpless. I could not go near my wife and children or even have a meal sitting on the same table. But soon, our elder daughter stepped in. She took care of the baby and helped her mother in whatever way she could,” adds Rai.

Things were challenging outside as well. With cases rising and thousands of migrant labourers heading home, the SDM had to organise and distribute food almost daily. He was deputed at Dadri station when lakhs of labourers were taking trains to leave the city. Although during this entire period, Rai stayed in his own house, he used a guest room with a separate entrance and washroom and hardly saw his family. “I would come home, take a bath and keep my clothes aside so that they could be washed. I used disposable cutlery for months. I had to be careful because of the baby,” he says.

But despite that, Rai tested positive in September. “It is strange that I did not get the virus when I was among people, distributing meals and working at the railway station. I got it when I met a relative briefly. He was sitting across a table. Later, he tested positive,” Rai recalls. His symptoms were mild but recovery took some time. “It sounds funny but Covid was a blessing in disguise. I was at home but nobody else got infected since we already had a strict protocol in place. When I finally got the report that said ‘negative’, I held my child for the first time. I spent as much time as I could with my children while recovering,” says Rai.

Once he resumed work, he was transferred to the collectorate in Jewar, where Rai is still posted. He took the vaccine recently but the protocol at home is still in place. Rai still uses the guest washroom to clean up before meeting his family. “I am glad we were careful. I hope everyone stays as careful as we are. It is the only reason that I could protect my family, although I was in the frontline and had Covid myself.”

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