Pandemic and Cyclone – throwback to a malady

May 2020.

This time, this year, is hard to not remember. Bitter, astonishing and no end to maladies. This year, this time, we would love to forget forever.

Bottle green moss walls. Knee deep dirt water, the smell of sewage, carcasses and erupting fungus. In the midst of blooming wilderness, there are missing humans everywhere.

A mother cat and two kittens, stranded at the other end of a flooded alley under someone’s house. They may survive on biscuits as the humans think feeding to stray animals on the already dirty, wet floor will invite ants.  They may not. The biscuits may not arrive.

Like the only son who never arrived home. One who had left the village to the big city, only to leave the big city to make it home. One. Small. Village. Home.

And now a fourth one in the old well. Puffed up little white body floating in the circle of mossy water. Chin up, ears down. After feeding on fish and rice, it must have slipped into the old well. Playful. Unchecked. Uncared for.

In the human world there is a mad scramble for water, food and medicines. Hospital beds and doctors. Masks and alcohol. Network and electricity. Kindness.

The whole world smells like a hospital. Where will the nosocomephobic go?

He can’t hide. Too many cameras. Too much of surveillance. Heavy handedness. Shunting by neighbours. Death by walking hundreds of kilometers on foot, or a stolen bicycle with thief’s apology. 

Thousands may have died at the end of this. On the other side of the loop, thousands may never know what happened beyond the gag order. Someone will never know what ‘s there at the end of a tumultuous, maddening love for an indecisive lover. The Block button in the smartphone. Cold and mechanical. That there is no turning back from here.

A smart phone, is the only sign of life in the midst of deafening silence of death. Of love, of promises, of human voice over sound.

First a virus, then this cyclone. Or both together. Tensed nights turned into wasted days. Breaking down of old living. Learning by doing. Doing and learning. Learning to let go.

Leaving behind more baggage, carrying along none. 

Thousands may never know what heartbreak feels like. An aged tree, uprooted, witness to the cyclone’s rage. 

Nihilistic, dark times. Depression in every home. Why is love never enough?