Lurking Behind the Veil of Lock-down

A fifty meters stroll, at least fifteen times a day between the courtyard and the hedge, that was rather a monotonous routine he developed during the unprecedented lock-down. That wasn’t good enough to kill the time, but helpless days stretched further with no end whatsoever. After this ceremonial and droning stroll across the lane-way he would sit over some random stones chasing the mosquitoes rampant all around and would rejoice over the number of killings. He would gladly count each mosquito which would meet a tragic end between his rough palms and laugh hilariously at his achievement. Rest of the time was spent on scratching on the broken display of his Samsung mobile, trying to browse through WhatsApp forwards. People have nothing else to spread except ‘on Corona’, and that had badly affected the variety forwarded messages too. Whenever he saw his wife’s face, he would yell at her, pouring down his anger and distress on that innocent women who has always been in ‘lock-down’ ever since her ill-fated wedlock with this crazy man. Her mere presence made him sick, except for food that he readily and shamelessly demanded.     

Basking in the sun on a huge rock that adorned his little property he contemplated deeply.

“How come I have these three kids?”

“Are they my own?”

He muttered in complete annoyance, “Looking at their pony tailed hair I think they are girls. Where they all here at my home? When were they born? Why is that slender looking girl stands out pale, that’s not my color?”

“Anyway, my sheer shadow frightens them, they stick around their mother, and she behaves like a hen watching over the newly hatched chicks. If they dare to come close to me, I wouldn’t bother to break their skulls.”

“Are they all going to school, well, I remember standing outside the headmaster’s office to get the first one admitted there, I hated that piercing look of the headmaster. And that was first and the last time I stepped onto a school campus.”

He never used to fund them for their schooling, he had better things to do with the hard-earned money.

Sitting idle brought in ravenous hunger, lock-down had already made him a guzzler to the extent of exhausting everything edible. When the midday sun hit on his bald head, he planned to search for something to satiate his craving stomach, and headed straight to the kitchen. He buried his hand into the rice pot to find some cooked rice but found none except making his hand blackened and dirty. He scraped the bottom of the rice bag to see if some rice left, but the bag was also empty.

“Had the bitch bought some rice, there could have been rice and fish curry for the lunch,” he screamed in fury. Shouting at one’s ill-fated state he kicked the rice pot in anger and the pot was thrown away making loud noise and spilling the left-over water all around.

“Let her clean all this up, accursed devil”, he began cursing her madly.  

None of his buddies were turning up those days. Initially some of them used to ring up and enquire if ‘something’ left with him. Once they knew that he was exhausted of liquor, they ditched him conveniently. When he had bottles left with him, dozens of his friends would gather around like flies around the light, some even ready to sponsor pickles as appetizers. Today, he is left alone. He went back to the stone to brood over his bad luck.

That night his wife began wheezing badly, he knew that she was an asthmatic patient. Ironically the youngest child also accompanied her wheezing. His wife was literally gasping for breath. Eventually, her wheezing sound disturbed his sleep.

He shouted in anger, “You bitch, insert some cloth into your nostrils and go to sleep, I got to sleep here.”

Fearing his offensive words, she pushed her head against the threadbare pillow and attempted to silence the sound, but it was in vein. Her little girl began crying desperately. The children were terrified by their mother’s deplorable state. But he continued his sound sleep ignoring all the confusions around. The eldest girl managed to get the attention of their immediate neighbor. She alerted them and they came in for help. Their mother was gasping, seeing her state the neighbor said, “this is not a symptom for asthma but Corona.” They tried to call her husband but he refused to heed their warning. The children were screaming with fear. She had grown too weak and weary struggling to even stand up by herself. The neighbor was furious about her husband’s negligence. He got into her husband’s room and slapped him on his cheek. He was literally beaten up black and blue. An ambulance was called in and she was shifted to the nearest Govt. hospital.

He was standing at the corridor of the hospital waiting for her blood result. Leaning against the wall and caressing his swollen cheeks he thought to himself, “once this bitch is alright, I must send her for work, she would earn for sure, only she can fetch some work and it is not wise to break her ribs now, this stupid lock-down will not end soon.”

“He dreamed of going to VK Bar and sitting in the a/c cabin and drink like a fish and celebrate the end of lock-down.”

Suddenly he was woken up by a call from a nurse. Massaging his overgrown beard, he looked up carelessly. The nurse shouted at him with contempt, “Hey man, where is your face mask, your wife is positive, you too must undergo a test and remain in the hospital for at least 28 days of quarantine”.

His wife overheard the nurse talking to her husband. She had her last laugh…. yes! a sweet revenge on her beloved ‘husband’.

He refused to comply with the authorities. While being dragged to the testing center he continued cursing his wife, but this time he looked nervous though.