Indian checks out of HK ‘flu hotel’

An Indian businessman who had been quarantined in a Hong Kong hotel for a week after the incidence of the H1N1 flu checked out on Friday, saying a sense of humour and an uniquely ‘Indian perspective’ made the ordeal bearable.

“You have to find the humour in a situation like that and make light of things,” Kevin Ireland, a businessman from New Delhi, told DNA. Ireland was in HK for a trade fair, but as a Mexican who was staying at the same hotel was diagnosed with the flu, the HK government locked down the hotel and 300 guests and staff for a week as a precautionary measure. The quarantine ended on Friday, and Ireland and the others trooped out, to be greeted by an international media circus.

In the early days of the quarantine, seeing a throng of mediapersons outside the hotel holding up signs asking to speak to guests, Ireland in turn put up a sign saying, “We’ll exchange information for beer, cigarettes and food.” It was meant in jest, but it opened the door for a steady supply of food and drinks, which guests (who were never in danger of contracting the flu) were thankful for.

When health officials came by for periodic health checks and to ask if he experienced flu symptoms, Ireland said he would cough and talk in a gruff voice, to tease them. “I’m a bit of a joker. What’s the point in hanging around with a long face?”

A South Korean businessman who was at risk of losing a $2 million contract because of his enforced quarantine got agitated, said Ireland. Few others from South Africa and Britain almost had a nervous breakdown, weeping constantly.

“Perhaps being Indian puts a different perspective on things,” said Ireland. “In the first few days, when all were nervous about the flu, I reminded myself that I come from a country where thousands die of cholera and dysentery to this day.”

On Friday, Ireland checked into another HK hotel, where he plans to spend two days — to buy gifts for his two daughters.