Item
COVID-19 Archive Project Interview
Media
Title (Dublin Core)
COVID-19 Archive Project Interview
Ameya Ghiya and Shriya Subramanian, 2021/09/15
Description (Dublin Core)
[Curator's Note] Two persons interview each other about their experiences during the COVIS-19 pandemic. They both lived in different countries when the pandemic started, as one of them lives in Singapore and the other in India.
Recording Date (Dublin Core)
Creator (Dublin Core)
Contributor (Dublin Core)
Type (Dublin Core)
oral history
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Travel
English
Education--Universities
English
Online Learning
English
Social Distance
English
Public Health & Hospitals
Collection (Dublin Core)
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
09/24/2021
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
10/01/2021
11/23/2021
11/28/2021
05/28/2022
07/05/2022
Date Created (Dublin Core)
09/15/2021
Interviewer (Bibliographic Ontology)
Ameya Ghiya
Shriya Subramanian
Interviewee (Bibliographic Ontology)
Ameya Ghiya
Shriya Subramanian
Location (Omeka Classic)
02116
Boston
United States of America
Format (Dublin Core)
Audio
Coverage (Dublin Core)
March 2020- September 2021
Language (Dublin Core)
english
Duration (Omeka Classic)
06:48
abstract (Bibliographic Ontology)
Two persons interview each other about their experiences during the COVIS-19 pandemic. They both lived in different countries when the pandemic started, as one of them lives in Singapore and the other in India. They talk about the response of the countries they lived in when the pandemic fist hit the globe, and also compare the national and global responses. Furthermore, they also talk about how these first months affected them and their communities and how they felt in these first days, when there wasn't much knowledge about the virus. They also talk about how the pandemic changes their social and academic life. One of them talks about how she had to graduate during the pandemic and how her academics were significantly affected by the pandemic.
Transcription (Omeka Classic)
Ameya Ghiya 00:00
Hello, my name is Ameya Ghiya . I give consent to be interviewed for the COVID-19 archive project. The date and time is September 15 2021 12pm. I am being interviewed by Shreya, she will now conduct the interview.
Shriya Subramanian 00:15
Where were you when the pandemic began? And when did it begin to affect your community?
Ameya Ghiya 00:21
I was living in Singapore when the pandemic began. Our pandemic started in the beginning of February and then started taking effect in mid February, my school trip was canceled in mid February. So even travel and things like that were canceled for us all the way in the beginning of 2020. So it's definitely a different experience, because we were one of the first countries to be affected by COVID-19. And school was still in person at this time, but travel was definitely something that started to shut down for us.
Shriya Subramanian 00:53
How did your country respond to the pandemic?
Ameya Ghiya 00:56
So our government was very quick to responding to the pandemic, because we weren't, I guess, there was not enough research of COVID-19 at the time. So Singapore just wanted to like get the process started. Try to contain the outbreak from China, or what we think, you know, originated in China, and started like with the non travel and then like, I think in mid March, we started locked down. But I think the government responded really quickly. And before the World Health Organization declared anything. So in a way, like we were kind of on our own, because there was no research or fact or anything really about COVID-19 at this point. So I think it was a very quick response with restrictions and travel and lock downs and masks as well.
Shriya Subramanian 01:42
How did the response and the pandemic itself make you feel? Were you worried or anxious?
Ameya Ghiya 01:46
I was definitely worried because we just did not know what was happening. We had no research, like I mentioned about COVID-19. So it was definitely, I guess, a weird experience because we didn't know why we were in lockdowns and things like that. And we were definitely frustrated, also, in a way because we saw the outside world still being able to travel doing fun things, because definitely all me and my friends, we were disappointed that our school trips got canceled, which were traveling overseas in mid February. So frustration was definitely a big thing, just because, you know, everyone else got to do their thing. So it was sad. But it was good that the Singapore government responded really fast and wanted to contain the pandemic. So we were worried we were frustrated. I was just, I guess, a mix of emotions just because it was so relatively new at the point.
Shriya Subramanian 02:35
Yeah. How did you feel about the national and global response to the pandemic?
Ameya Ghiya 02:40
It was definitely delayed. And according to an article I read, the epidemiologists said that the World Health Organization delayed their responses well towards the public saying that, Oh, this is actually a global crisis. And with that being said, Singapore definitely started their process faster in containing the virus and we didn't have like support from the World Health Organization's. So it was definitely a different response that we had, then what the world had way later on, I think, I honestly like in the beginning of the summer, like not even March, but starting to begin in March.
Shriya Subramanian 03:16
How did the pandemic affect your life socially and academically?
Ameya Ghiya 03:20
it was definitely a challenging time to continue staying, or like, continue staying like positive and things like that, because we were in lockdown for so long. But my friends and I, we tried connecting with each other online, over social media and everything. And then academically, we did go online. But having those connections definitely made us stay sane, for sure. And in better in a more positive environment.
Shriya Subramanian 03:45
Given that you moved from overseas, how is the pandemic response similar or different from or between both countries?
Ameya Ghiya 03:50
it's definitely different. Because even simple things like masks are very much mandatory in Singapore, you can get fined, jailed or sent back to your home country or even like a big court case or something like that if you didn't comply with the rules. So simple things like that, that I don't see the US is just very interesting. And also Singapore responded really fast to the pandemic versus the US. So that whole thing is very interesting to see. Thank you Shriya for conducting this interview today.
Shriya Subramanian 04:17
My name is Shreya. I give consent to be interviewed for the COVID-19 archive project. The date and time is September 15 12:05. I'm being interviewed by Ameya.
Ameya Ghiya 04:27
Where were you when the pandemic began? And when did that begin to affect your community?
Shriya Subramanian 04:32
When the pandemic began, I was in India, it only began to significantly affect my community towards end of March, teachers began to tell us to finish our lab projects in case we would have to stay home for the next couple of weeks. And this is when I actually understood the severity of the cases, since there were only two or three cases in the state I lived in.
Ameya Ghiya 04:50
How did it make you feel? Were you worried or anxious and like how did your country respond to the pandemic as well?
Shriya Subramanian 04:56
I was essentially only confused rather than anxious at the beginning of the pandemic. I thought the lockdown would only last a few weeks. And then we would go back to our everyday lives. Our locked down again at the end of March and though we were staying at home, lockdown wasn't as strict as other countries. And the majority of the people still went out and went on with their everyday lives. After a month that like went by, that's when I began to feel anxious and worried about our situation.
Ameya Ghiya 05:24
How did you feel about the national and global response to the pandemic,
Shriya Subramanian 05:27
I felt like the national response was not as strict as it could have been at all. A large people, number of people were still not wearing masks and still going outside. And the rising cases towards the end of 2020 definitely showed how relaxed the mandate was during the pandemic. By making the people of India comply with the mandate and placing more strict lockdowns, the rising cases could have been avoided, or the chances of it could have been reduced significantly.
Ameya Ghiya 05:59
How does the pandemic affect your life socially and academically? and if there was any change from 2020 to 2021, it'd be great if you could share those thoughts.
Shriya Subramanian 06:08
The pandemic significantly affected my life socially and academically. My school was completely online from the first lockdown until we graduated, which forced us to not write our IB examinations. And this greatly affected all of our scores. Socially, I was unfortunately unable to see any of my friends even before I had to move here. Although most of my friends and kids at my school still met each other very frequently, and were able to hang out like they used to, if not more than pre pandemic. I did make the safer choice by staying at home completely. Thank you Ameya for conducting this interview.
Hello, my name is Ameya Ghiya . I give consent to be interviewed for the COVID-19 archive project. The date and time is September 15 2021 12pm. I am being interviewed by Shreya, she will now conduct the interview.
Shriya Subramanian 00:15
Where were you when the pandemic began? And when did it begin to affect your community?
Ameya Ghiya 00:21
I was living in Singapore when the pandemic began. Our pandemic started in the beginning of February and then started taking effect in mid February, my school trip was canceled in mid February. So even travel and things like that were canceled for us all the way in the beginning of 2020. So it's definitely a different experience, because we were one of the first countries to be affected by COVID-19. And school was still in person at this time, but travel was definitely something that started to shut down for us.
Shriya Subramanian 00:53
How did your country respond to the pandemic?
Ameya Ghiya 00:56
So our government was very quick to responding to the pandemic, because we weren't, I guess, there was not enough research of COVID-19 at the time. So Singapore just wanted to like get the process started. Try to contain the outbreak from China, or what we think, you know, originated in China, and started like with the non travel and then like, I think in mid March, we started locked down. But I think the government responded really quickly. And before the World Health Organization declared anything. So in a way, like we were kind of on our own, because there was no research or fact or anything really about COVID-19 at this point. So I think it was a very quick response with restrictions and travel and lock downs and masks as well.
Shriya Subramanian 01:42
How did the response and the pandemic itself make you feel? Were you worried or anxious?
Ameya Ghiya 01:46
I was definitely worried because we just did not know what was happening. We had no research, like I mentioned about COVID-19. So it was definitely, I guess, a weird experience because we didn't know why we were in lockdowns and things like that. And we were definitely frustrated, also, in a way because we saw the outside world still being able to travel doing fun things, because definitely all me and my friends, we were disappointed that our school trips got canceled, which were traveling overseas in mid February. So frustration was definitely a big thing, just because, you know, everyone else got to do their thing. So it was sad. But it was good that the Singapore government responded really fast and wanted to contain the pandemic. So we were worried we were frustrated. I was just, I guess, a mix of emotions just because it was so relatively new at the point.
Shriya Subramanian 02:35
Yeah. How did you feel about the national and global response to the pandemic?
Ameya Ghiya 02:40
It was definitely delayed. And according to an article I read, the epidemiologists said that the World Health Organization delayed their responses well towards the public saying that, Oh, this is actually a global crisis. And with that being said, Singapore definitely started their process faster in containing the virus and we didn't have like support from the World Health Organization's. So it was definitely a different response that we had, then what the world had way later on, I think, I honestly like in the beginning of the summer, like not even March, but starting to begin in March.
Shriya Subramanian 03:16
How did the pandemic affect your life socially and academically?
Ameya Ghiya 03:20
it was definitely a challenging time to continue staying, or like, continue staying like positive and things like that, because we were in lockdown for so long. But my friends and I, we tried connecting with each other online, over social media and everything. And then academically, we did go online. But having those connections definitely made us stay sane, for sure. And in better in a more positive environment.
Shriya Subramanian 03:45
Given that you moved from overseas, how is the pandemic response similar or different from or between both countries?
Ameya Ghiya 03:50
it's definitely different. Because even simple things like masks are very much mandatory in Singapore, you can get fined, jailed or sent back to your home country or even like a big court case or something like that if you didn't comply with the rules. So simple things like that, that I don't see the US is just very interesting. And also Singapore responded really fast to the pandemic versus the US. So that whole thing is very interesting to see. Thank you Shriya for conducting this interview today.
Shriya Subramanian 04:17
My name is Shreya. I give consent to be interviewed for the COVID-19 archive project. The date and time is September 15 12:05. I'm being interviewed by Ameya.
Ameya Ghiya 04:27
Where were you when the pandemic began? And when did that begin to affect your community?
Shriya Subramanian 04:32
When the pandemic began, I was in India, it only began to significantly affect my community towards end of March, teachers began to tell us to finish our lab projects in case we would have to stay home for the next couple of weeks. And this is when I actually understood the severity of the cases, since there were only two or three cases in the state I lived in.
Ameya Ghiya 04:50
How did it make you feel? Were you worried or anxious and like how did your country respond to the pandemic as well?
Shriya Subramanian 04:56
I was essentially only confused rather than anxious at the beginning of the pandemic. I thought the lockdown would only last a few weeks. And then we would go back to our everyday lives. Our locked down again at the end of March and though we were staying at home, lockdown wasn't as strict as other countries. And the majority of the people still went out and went on with their everyday lives. After a month that like went by, that's when I began to feel anxious and worried about our situation.
Ameya Ghiya 05:24
How did you feel about the national and global response to the pandemic,
Shriya Subramanian 05:27
I felt like the national response was not as strict as it could have been at all. A large people, number of people were still not wearing masks and still going outside. And the rising cases towards the end of 2020 definitely showed how relaxed the mandate was during the pandemic. By making the people of India comply with the mandate and placing more strict lockdowns, the rising cases could have been avoided, or the chances of it could have been reduced significantly.
Ameya Ghiya 05:59
How does the pandemic affect your life socially and academically? and if there was any change from 2020 to 2021, it'd be great if you could share those thoughts.
Shriya Subramanian 06:08
The pandemic significantly affected my life socially and academically. My school was completely online from the first lockdown until we graduated, which forced us to not write our IB examinations. And this greatly affected all of our scores. Socially, I was unfortunately unable to see any of my friends even before I had to move here. Although most of my friends and kids at my school still met each other very frequently, and were able to hang out like they used to, if not more than pre pandemic. I did make the safer choice by staying at home completely. Thank you Ameya for conducting this interview.
Item sets
This item was submitted on September 24, 2021 by [anonymous user] using the form “Upload” on the site “Oral Histories”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/oralhistory
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