At the height of the pandemic last May—when people didn’t know exactly what they were supposed to do if they tested positive for the novel coronavirus—Instagram users adhering to lockdown norms by staying indoors suddenly noticed that their favorite hyperlocal meme page “AndheriWestShitPosting” was putting out firsthand information about protocol that must be followed in such cases. The elaborate Instagram posts on the page marked quite a drastic shift from its usual tonality, going from Andheri-based humor to do’s and don’ts for people who may have contracted the virus, and what they could do to keep the infection from spreading to their family members.

It didn’t take long to figure out that 26-year-old Balram Vishwakarma, a resident of Andheri and founder of the page, had tested positive and was undergoing treatment at the CC2 facility in Andheri’s Laxmi Industrial Estate. “Murphy’s law has always been against me…I thought I was going to die, which is why I wanted to be of help to others who might be feeling the same way because of the virus,” he told mid-day. Balram was at the facility from May 6 to May 11 and was then shifted to Cooper Hospital from May 11 to May 14. However, he wasn’t alone: it was as if all 60,000+ followers of AndheriWestShitPosting were taking part in his recovery journey with him, imbibing constant information that Balram was putting up while receiving treatment. “It was like I was the first student to enter a viva classroom and then when I come out everyone is asking me what were the questions that were asked. But in simple terms, you could say that I had a microphone attached to my ear and all I was doing was relaying information to those on the outside.”