Pandemic Write Ups
I
-Home Return-
Author: Dr.K.S.Kang
Suddenly
the news in the town spread like a wild fire after a person who had come from
abroad had tested positive. Curfew was enforced at once in the locality where
the infected person lived and authorities clamped strict lockdown in the area
declaring it to be red zone. Factories. Schools, colleges and offices and shops
in the market were ordered to be closed at once with the exception of few shops
selling essential items like medicines, groceries and milk. These shops were
also allowed to open only for a couple of hours in the morning and evening.
Such was the might of invisible, almost weightless virus named Corona that life in the town had come to
stand and still. With that came one of the most severe crisis in the life
of Bholu who worked in the bicycle
factory of the town. Owner of the factory showed his inability to continue
their job and asked them to go away at once. This crisis was not only for Bholu
but for hundreds of people like Bholu who had come from the distant parts of
the country like Assam ,
Bihar, Orissa and Bengal to come in the number
of industries in this part of the country that was more industrialized than the
rest of the country. Now they were free to die if not from corona then from
starvation. Perhaps in choosing the way to die also they were not free.
Whatever money and food was left in the house was spent before the first week
of the lockdown ended.
Different
people thought of diverse ways to confront this crisis but almost every person
like Bholu made up his mind to return to his village as he felt that it is
better to die among his fellow villagers than among the strange people in this
strange place. Some of them gathered at Bus Stations and Railway Stations to
get some conveyance for their village but they only succeeded in getting lathis
of the Police who were ordered by the administration to disperse the crowd so
as to avoid the possible spread of Pandemic. As Bholu was educated so he knew
well that despite the social, religious and linguistic divisions the humanity
was broadly divided into three- rich, not so rich or middle class and poor and
destitute people like Bholu. Each class had adopted different methods of facing
lockdown. Rich and middle classes, as they had no worry of income and food,
adopted every instruction of government like staying indoors, wearing masks, using
sanitisers, social distancing and utilizing their time by pursuing their
hobbies and devoting time to their families, friends, relatives and even
neighbors. But people like Bholu who were entirely dependent upon their daily
earnings had no option left either to die in this town or to reach their
village or to die of some calamity on the way to their village. Bholu and his
family decided to make an attempt to reach their village but government had
stopped buses and trains. So Bholu and his family, like many others decided to
rely on their own resources and means and started their journey towards their
destination by foot in the hope of finding some means to continue their journey.
Some people were moving on their bicycles, rickshaws- particularly a girl who
was dragging an old man on the bicycle whose legs were injured in an accident
as he was an auto driver. After covering a few kilometers on highway Bholu’s
younger daughter got hungry, after walking for a few more kilometers they saw a
social organization distributing food packets and water bottles. Though most of
the people could not get food packet in the name of social distancing and
flouting rules of lockdown but some how Bholu managed to get food packets and
water bottle. There were many people like Bholu who were walking on the highway
with their belongings with single undivided aim of reaching their village come
what may. Some of them were trying to contact truck drivers who gave them lifts
to their villages but of course for a price. Seeing the tiredness of his
children he also tried to contact a tanker driver but the price that he asked
was too much for Bholu to afford as moneywas the only thing that Bholu did not
have to spare. So they decided to continue walking on the highway. By evening
Bholu and his family were tired and hungry like a stray dog. Bholu met a tempo
driver who knew him personally but he was unable to help him, though he wanted
to as his tempo was already having eighteen people comprising of men, women and
children belonging to same family. So they continued walking for another
kilometer when they stopped a road side hotel. As it was getting darker and
Bholu did not consider it wise and safe to continue the journey with the family
during the night though it was pleasant during the night on the highway. Hotel
owner agreed to give them food and shelter for the night but in return he
wanted Bholu and his wife to clean the utensils and the hotel campus as his
workers have run away to their near by villages and have not returned since
yesterday. So they spent the first night on the highway under the cover of
moonlight and shining stars as the weather was quite pleasant and as they were
tired so after having their fill they had a good and sound sleep. They resumed
their journey early in the morning next day as they hoped to cover some
distance before the merciless scorching heat of the sun gets unbearable. After
walking for a couple of kilometers Bholu’s eyes hit a seemingly familiar sight.
On coming closer he found that it was upturned tempo whose owner could not take
Bholu and his family on his tempo as it was already over loaded. Some speeding
car had hit it from the back resulting in the death of the driver sending him
to his ultimate destination within no time. His wife was wailing and an
ambulance was taking injured people to the hospital and some workers of social
organization was handing over biscuits and water bottles to them. Good sense
prevailed over Bholu he also grabbed a packet of biscuit and bottle of water
from them. That day Bholu saw another tragic sight of a overturned truck that
had killed atleast a dozen people like Bholu who hoped to reach their village
safely and earlier and so paid some money, that perhaps they got from their
uncles in the villages, to the driver and in this attempt reached their final
Home instead.
In
afternoon while taking biscuits that were given by the social organizations
Bholu heard that police authorities were driving people like Bholu from the
highway and forcing them to return to their respective town. Now Bholu did not
want to return back to town that was nothing less than a hell. He met another
man with his family named Jaita, who like Bholu was coming from another big
town of the contry and heading towards his village. Both Bholu and Jaita
decided to leave highway and walk on the nearby railway as they hoped that it
was safer and it would also take them to their destination. In the evening they
came to a pond where railway line merged into another branch line. Here Bholu
and Jaita decided to call it a day and rest for the night. As there were no
social organizations on the railway lines so they had depend on the whatever
food packets and biscuits were left. Although they had luxury to drink as much
water as they liked from the pond. Jaita’s family decided to sleep on the
railway line making the railway tracks as their pillow as they knew that
government had stopped all the trains, while Bholu’s family decided to move near
the pond. At midnight there was sudden bright light and noise and cries of
Jaita, his wife and two young boys who were mercilessly cut down by a cargo
train that only God knows where it came from. In the morning Bholu was feeling
depressed at the sudden and tragic loss of his fellow passengers. However they
continued walking on the tracks. At a place where Bholu stopped to have a cup
of tea he heard another rumor that some people like Bholu who had succeeded in
reaching their villages were driven away, beaten up and one even was killed.
Bholu could not imagine even in his dreams that this virus has made people so
much afraid and insensitive that even his own friends and relatives with whom
he had spent his entire childhood will kill him. Sometimes he even questioned
his decision of leaving the town and move towards his village. Will it be so
near yet so far for him and his family too. There was an air of uncertainty as
he did not know whether he and his family would succeed in reaching their
village or not, will they die on the way or even by his own fellow villagers yet
inspired by the couple who had undertaken the journey of 1100 kms on foot and
by the girl who had ferried across her father successfully on bicycle by
covering the journey of 400 kms, he took another step towards his desitnation.
No comments:
Post a Comment