Anoop

It's lockdown out there in the city. The city is closed for the fifth consecutive day. The city is under the grasp of a terrible pandemic. Silence lingers around in the streets. No one but the essential supplies is allowed to open. Anoop is in the city, away from the humans he has known and laughed along. Anoop remains at his one-room rented space, having all amenities. Anoop feels fortunate. The pandemic has not touched him as of yet. He feels grateful about it.

It's been almost thirty days that Anoop has touched anyone. Since the lockdown, he hardly comes out of his room. From the window of his room, he could see the sea of buildings trapping families and other humans inside them. He did go out into the streets to buy some supplies. The walks also fill him with the rare human aura. "Yes, there are people still living around...". When he walks, he looks at people's faces, makes eye contact, tries to pass a salutary smile beneath the facial mask, and passes. He eavesdrops on people discussing their survival. He feels part of it. It's a daily ritual and also a way of survival. Anoop has learned how to survive in these isolationist days.

Coming back from his small walk, he meets the street dog downstairs. He plays with it a bit, give it something to eat, console it and silently head back to his room. In the room, he and his work remain. He is a student. Study is his work.

Apart from eating the food, doing daily rituals like bathing, shitting, brushing teeth, shaving, cutting nails, yeah, in whatever order, he drinks coffee thrice a day and some days more than that. It helps to calm him down. It gives him another way to supplement the missing people from life. He is also overeating. These days, yet he knows, he has been overusing the social media platforms. He browses and stalks people's profiles. He checks what others are doing. He also finds people similar to him. But there are those who are hit by the pandemic and suffering from the permanent loss of close ones.

The internet is filled with cries, complaints, wailings, sarcasm, blames, and also the pictures of the hospitals, people dying, last rites, news reporters covering news, and so on. There are also people who are supporting fellow humans in the pandemic. It gives Anoop a sense of hope.

There is a constant sound of the ambulance siren passing through the street as there is a hospital in the vicinity. The frequency of the siren has increased just so much. Every time one passes, it reminds him of the pandemic, of abnormal times, of people in need, and, of exercising gratefulness.

Anoop remains in his room, studying, wishing good, feeling helpless, finding solutions, web browsing, pondering over problems, looking at humans, talking over the phone, and poking friends on social platforms. He stares way too much from the window, at the sky, at silent buildings, at birds flying and chirping. He knows that this too shall pass and he and as well the fellow humans have to wait and wait just a bit when things will start getting better.