His name is Kovid but covid-19 changed his life: “I’m not a virus”
Kovid Kapoor has seen his life change radically since the start of the corona pandemic. The Indian writes extensively on Twitter about the new challenges in his life, where his witty contributions find much resonance. The Covid-19 has literally raised some dust on his name: people not only misspell his name but think he’s a virus.
The most difficult thing for the Indian businessman, Kovid Kapoor, is that he has to explain again and again where his name comes from, he told some news agencies. And in the meantime also to numerous other international media… Because Kovid, he is going viral.
In Sanskrit, his name means “scholar”. In addition, his name is actually pronounced with a weak “d” at the end and not with a hard “d” like with Covid. But Kovid has to explain that every time. And even then, his name causes a lot of surprise and hilarity.
The World Health Organization WHO, in its own words, wanted to find a name at the beginning of the pandemic that did not refer to a person or group of people, a geographic area, or an animal. But as is often the case, something always slips through the net.
“My name is Kovid, and I am not a virus,” the Indian tweeted at the time about “Covid-19”.
Since then, he not only has to answer questions about his name all the time but also laughs a lot. A tweet about what he experiences through his name recently went viral. And now the whole world knows ‘the man who is not the virus’. Incidentally, several other unfortunate Kovids have reported to Kapoor since the start of the pandemic.
Cake
Kovid testifies, among other things, that when his friends ordered a cake for his thirtieth birthday, the message “Happy birthday, #covid-30” was written on it. And about the time when he wanted to order a coffee at Starbucks, and the barista burst out laughing. “I usually use a false name now,” Kovid says.
Still, the thirty-year-old also likes that the pandemic has given him the opportunity to make jokes himself. For example, he says he has been “Kovid-positive” since 1990 – the year he was born. Kapoor is convinced that the jokes will stay with him for a long time. Although he especially hopes, together with the rest of the world, that the pandemic will be over soon.
