12/12/20  Karachi

 

Travelers say thank-you to Corona


Just came back from a PCR, the mandatory COVID-19 screening test required for me to board the upcoming flight.

The year we are about to say goodbye to has been tough for people wanting to live lives free of restrictions, and especially for those who assert their freedom through traveling.  Since March this year, governments around the globe have been actively trying to ‘save’ their citizens from the recent flu pandemic that is said to have originated in China.  Stay in place, go out only for essential business; in several places these are not medical recommendations, they are official orders.  But only the smart ones have been obedient.  Many including yours truly are excluded.  I have been availing every opportunity to travel during the pandemic.

The first one came in late March, a business-related opportunity to visit the Seattle area.  The news out of King County Washington was harrowing.  Corona was running wild; it was a bloodbath there…if you believe the mainstream media.  How to decide if it was safe to go to Washington,  I asked myself.  I checked online for the flights; they were running.  If the airline staff was not deterred by the pandemic why should this new flu scare me.  So, I went, with my ‘essential worker’ documents—and everything worked out; I came back alive.

Following the Seattle trip, there were opportunities for several road trips—I did not let go any one of them.

Then came the bloody Eid (Eid Ul Azha) which I wanted to spend with family members in Kansas.  I took a flight to Vegas and drove from there to Kansas and back, spreading the California Corona virus in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, and Colorado.  If there were a COVID supespreader contest, I would be one of the finalists.

Travel during pandemic has been really smooth.  From rental car centers to airport security lines, you just breeze through all the hurdles… people who normally crowd these places are staying at home, counting the daily Corona death toll on CNN.

How will the new year unfold?  Will the vaccinated crowd come back to jam the airports and the highways? Who knows?  The hard-core travelers are fine either way.