X Mas Message to Dearest Kush and Aarav 24/12/2021 Blog number 38, nguptatravelscrapbook.blogspot.com

X Mas message for dearest Kush and Aarav.  24/12/2021 🎄

The 2021 year is gradually winding up. Tic! Toc! Tic! Toc!

Hallelujah is the shout of the victory that we have so far achieved in the severest of the Covid Pandemic prevailing for the last two years. As we gather to celebrate Xmas 2021 and the birth of Lord Jesus Christ, our first and most important message, from our family to yours, is to wish you a joyful and peaceful Christmas. We hope the New Year 2022 is kinder to us.

Much happened in 2021, and I hope it moves towards 2022 far more assured and restoratively.

Thankfully, unlike last Xmas, this year we can celebrate Xmas with our nears and dears in an unrestrictive manner while being cautious against the new emerging strain of the Covid virus, called Omicron, since the beginning of December 2021. Last year we came to your house to celebrate and have Xmas dinner together as we remained in a healthy bubble within the permitted restrictions to meet indoors. The bubble phrase was so commonly used at that time. 

You may recollect that this time, last year, in December 2020, the news was breaking that all adults over the ages of 60 would start receiving the first dose of the Covid vaccine. We all recall the pictures of Margaret Keenan receiving the Covid Vaccination, produced by Pfizer pharmaceutical company, being the first person in the world to receive a covid jab. There was as much nervousness, as excitement, about the prospect of receiving two doses of Covid Vaccinations, twelve weeks apart. Once again, the UK had made world history, this time in the name of Covid Vaccination. 

It is to note that UK scientists have been at the forefront of inventing vaccinations and improving public health since the beginning of the 20th century. It has included inventing and designing vaccination programmes against various bacterial and viral illnesses, including Small Pox, Diptheria and Polio with Malaria vaccine in the pipeline, and galvanising the world health forces towards these massive projects. The UK has become the first country globally to ramp up a mass vaccination programme during the Covid pandemic, jabbing up to almost a million people a day.

Multiple mass vaccination centres propped up throughout the country, with clear and visible road signs displayed in yellow billboards. In our area, Sandown racecourse provided one such vaccination facility. You would fondly and very well remember Sandown Park, as it was where you both started the nursery classes in its fore-court back in February 2011 ( Kush) and in March 2013( Aarav).

At the same time, in Dec 2020, your Mum initiated and directed a mass vaccination programme locally in the capacity of the Lead clinical director for Surrey Downs CCG. She started giving her expertise and hands-on services, including jabbing thousands of people at the vaccination Center based at Giggs Hill Surgery, 14 Raphael Drive, Thames Ditton. I recall the day when there was a breakout of fire at this centre when your Mum was giving jabs just minutes before the fire. 

Being the front line GP, she was the first person who received Covid vaccination ( Pfizer) from our household on 19th December 2020. She remained firm to advise us about the prospects of covid infection rates, methods to minimise the spread of Covid infection and helped your Nani and Nana to provide weekly groceries and other necessities as needed during the lockdowns. Your parents regularly checked our well-being, visited us, and met us from a distance while remaining within the Covid restriction guidelines. By the end of 2020, we were hearing of a dominant Kent variant of Covid with a faster transmission rate with worsening hospitalisation rates. 

I remember that the whole of January of 2021 was met with the strictest of the lockdown, with your schools closed till 08/03/2021, for almost twelve weeks! During January 2021, there were no indoor or outdoor mixing or socialising; we only saw you from a distance and that too in masked faces. 

You both performed exceptionally well under the circumstances when you could not go to your school, a fundamental and must childhood activity. You both would start your classes and lesson online using your respective Laptops. I wonder how you felt about the online lessons? Did you miss the personal touches of your great and respected teachers, school dinners, playing in the school fields, chatting and joking with your friends, wearing your school uniforms? And above all, you must have missed all the school sports activities, inter-school matches, etc. It was a tough time indeed. Few experts have written these missed school times may never be filled up back in times to come. But I must say that you two were very dynamic in following the dos and don'ts as the covid pandemic required from you. 

Apart from attending the online classes, the new chores for you included:

• Helping your parents do the routine house jobs.

• Self-care.

• Taking care of washings.

• Emptying dishwashers.

• Helping Mum and dad prepare food.

• Cleaning the table afterwards and keeping your personal space clean and tidy. 

During much of 2021, your parents worked from home. I remember around the same time; your parents added you on the mobile phones to send messages to us, including the funny GIF videos. We enjoyed those videos to a great extent, and that Nana and I would keep on repeating those videos.

Your schools reopened on 8th March 2021 after being shut for 12 weeks, since the Xmas holidays of 2020.

We all adults received the first dose of Covid vaccination, including your dad, at the beginning of Feb 2021, and that your Mum received the second dose in Jan 2021. The prolonged lockdown loosened up from 12th April 2021, with outdoor mixing allowed between two households. It was incredibly reassuring, feeling confident so much so that you both and I booked an outdoor table at the local Pizza express in Esher for lunch on 12/04/2021. We enjoyed sitting for a restaurant food but felt very cold with tables being arranged outdoors.

While we started enjoying the freedom of more socialising with the family and friends, your parents took us all out to Foley's lunch on 17th April 2021. It was a joint celebration to celebrate a few B days, including Kush, Mummy and Daddy. We loved it very much.

Your schools closed for Easter break on 31st March 2021 and reopened on 26th April 2021. We enjoyed a few lunches along with you two in Carluccio during this break, sitting outside as the indoor hospitality has generally not opened up yet. Kush, you remember having a paintball party on your B-day, and then we all went to London to French Bistro named Bleeding Hearts to celebrate more B days. It was a delightful day indeed.

At the same time, we were starting to hear about a new variant of COVID coming out of India – what became known as the Delta Variant, the most infectious and fast-spreading virus variant. The early part was a race between distributing the vaccine and against the Delta variant spreading. The mass vaccination programme was ramping up, with most adults receiving the second vaccination dose by the end of April 2021. Schools reopened, and almost all restrictions were lifted gradually by 19th July 2021. It was celebrated as Freedom Day.

We all managed to squeeze a week-long break to Greece starting on 18th August 2021. It was a new procedure that we all adults needed to log on to our vaccination status and fill up a locator form before boarding our flights both ways. We learnt how to perform Lateral flow tests and when to go for PCR tests as needed. However, overall the global travel has remained restrictive in many ways. Many countries declared National emergency due to pandemics, including Japan, South Korea, India and China. India witnessed the most unprecedented Delta variant pandemic, with most deaths recorded globally. 

After defeating Donald Trump, Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the USA, banned from FB by Mark Zukerberg. It was also when Richard Branson took a space flight to the edge of space on 11th July 2021. Tokyo Olympics 2020 went ahead this year with restrictive conditions. By the end of November 2021, the global deaths due to Covid have been reported beyond, five million with unofficial figures being twice this figure!

At the personal level, Kush, you went on your first-ever school camping on 28th June 2021, which you enjoyed thoroughly. You both managed week-long lessons on Sailing at the local sailing club during the summer holidays and achieved high levels in Kuk Sool Won later this year.

As the year is coming to a closing end, we are amidst yet another variant of Covid, named Omicron, which is spreading much faster than the Delta variant. Initial research shows that Omicron may be less fulminant than the last variant with minimal hospitalisation. The UK government has initiated a further drive to boost vaccination programmes by opening up of multiple and new vaccination sites. 24X7, including Xmas day. These sites could be in a temple, mosque, sports grounds, restaurants, racecourses or in the form of mobile units in London Transport buses. 

We know that we made it thru these difficult circumstances because of you all. Thank you for your fantastic support thru-out. At the same time, Nana and Nani are so proud of the accomplishments you both achieved throughout the year, including your selection ( Kush) to the most prestigious school named Winchester College. 

May we all be blessed with a better year full of joy, more results, more holidays and unforgettable memories!

Hallelujah once again!

Love you loads!

Nani and Nana

❤️