Covid-19 Stopped Me From Digging My Nose And Biting My Nails
Something my mother and my wife couldn’t
Covid-19 has ruined many lives in worse ways than one could imagine. My family and I also lived in fear throughout the year 2020 and most of 2021 until we got fully vaccinated. We learned that sticking together in difficult times need not mean being physically close, and sometimes must not be. Even in our home, we stayed in separate rooms most of the time. When we watched television shows together, we sat as far as we could from each other as the room allowed.
We made it a part of our routine to wash hands before eating food, something I never did before the year 2020. Even today we wear masks and carry a small sanitizer bottle with us whenever we step out of our house, even if it is to pick up the newspaper lying at our doorstep.
As a family, a community, and even as an individual, I think we had to make a lot of changes to survive. But there’s one change that I just can’t cope with anymore. I don’t want to keep my fingers away from my nose and mouth. I love digging my nose and biting my nails but I can’t do it freely anymore. When I’m at my house I have to first wash my hands with soap before I can grant access to my fingers anywhere in my face area. This time gap between the craving and the satiation of that desire, created by the action of washing hands, reduces and sometimes completely wipes out the joy and thrill of it.
When I’m outside my house, my access is completely blocked by the mask I’m wearing. I could sneak into a corner, apply some sanitizer, and then let my fingers enter my nose and mouth. But since I am a perennially paranoid person and won’t even open my mask to eat outside my house, opening my mask for my dirty deeds creates a conflict in my principles and value system that I don’t want to get involved in.
My wife and my mother were really thrilled to notice my decently grown nails, sharp on the edges. In their excitement, they promised to file my nails and give them a proper shape. I declined. Next thing they might want to apply nail paint on a newly discovered canvas. Besides, I prefer filing my nails with my own teeth.
I was excited on the day I got fully vaccinated because that meant I could dig my nose and bite my nails anytime I wanted. No more restrictions. But then the experts said that vaccination doesn’t make you completely immune, it only makes you better equipped to fight the infection and significantly improves your chances of survival. This means I might fall sick if I’m careless and there’s a tiny possibility that I might land in the hospital. Many news reports of fully vaccinated people falling sick confirmed this. Given the low insurance cover provided by my employer and my fear of hospitals, I continue to stay away from digging my nose and biting my nails in public.
This new normal has inculcated many good habits in me, especially washing my hands after coming from outside. But I miss the old normal sometimes when I could act on my impulse anytime anywhere. But today when the urge surges through me, and if I’m at my house, then I wash my hands with soap, close myself in my room and enjoy the nostalgia by digging my nose and biting my nails.
