Its 6:15 pm.
A typical evening.
I am sitting in my terrace gazing at some pigeons in front of me.
They are feeding on the corn I had just spread for them.
They visit me every evening.
It’s feels like they know me
and are expecting me to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I turn towards my right.
There is the main highway. The roads are empty and the shops are closed.
I can see a handful of people, now and then, walking around for their own purpose.
It\u2019s not usual.
Trust me, this highway, which I am talking about is the main one in our city.
It used to be crowded with vehicles, running constantly, with clutter and noise of people,
running the race of their lives.
And, today, it feels deserted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a small shop across the road
the kind you see in highways with wooden
walls, a tin roof and a small window in the front.
There is an old man who sits by the window and sells sweets and tobacco to earn a living.
In the past few days, I noticed that the old man is growing weaker.
I haven’t seen him sturdy and muscular since I have known him.
He wasn’t the strong kind but today, he somehow, looks more lean than ever.
The nerves in his neck are more distinct,
his ashen face has gotten more pale and his eyes look bloodshot red.
There haven\u2019t been enough passersby in his shop lately.
COVID-19 didn’t spare the world, we couldn’t expect it to spare the old man’s little shop, could we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I slowly turn to my left, and I see the clear blue sky.
It hasn’t been so blue in decades.
On a clear day, the mountains are visible so distinctly that I have a hard time believing that,
I live in the plains.
There are birds, pigeons, sparrows,
the white birds that I can’t even name flying above me.
I occasionally spot a bird with blue wings and another with a red tail.
I even saw an owl resting on a tree yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did I tell you I can see mountains?
The mountains with white clouds covering their peaks like a blanket.
You can’t figure out where the sky ends and where the surface begins.
It\u2019s almost time for sunset. The sky is changing its colors.
Do you remember about the VIBGYOR that was taught to us in our science class?
Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red.
I can see all these colors scattering through the sky ultimately painting the sky red
as the sun goes deeper down beyond my sight.
Right above my head, I can see the moon.
It isn\u2019t a full moon though, but it still looks beautiful with all its imperfections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since lockdown began, every evening I come to my terrace
and wonder about the effects of this lockdown.
More than hundred countries with millions of people
against one virus that isn’t even visible to us without a powerful microscope.
The whole world being locked inside their own homes
forced to reunite with their lost self and their
own home planet;
I can’t stop myself from being mesmerized with the irony of our situation.
We needed a break.
Our planet needed a break.
It needed some time to rest,
to just breathe and close its eyes for a time being but we were too stubborn.
Human race has always been this way – selfish and greedy.
We never really took a moment to acknowledge the needs of our own home.
We complained even when we had so much to be grateful for.
We strived when we needed to be satisfied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, who do we blame? Aren’t we all responsible?
A little by little we weakened the system that was supposed to be our shield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right now,
I feel chained but at the same time, I have never felt so free in the embrace of nature.
I see helplessness and misery in the eyes of the old man in that tiny shop
but I can’t overlook the gleams of happiness in eyes of all those children
whose parents were too busy for playing with them.
I see humans caged in their own homes but I can also see free animals, reclaiming their home.
I see a single virus killing thousands of people
but how do I ignore the fact, that this same disease gave our mother earth
a moment of peace to recover and heal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The biggest irony, Isn’t it?
An irony of life and death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Its 6:15 pm.A typical evening.I am sitting in my terrace gazing at some pigeons in front of me.They are feeding on the corn I had just spread for them.They visit me every evening.It’s feels like they know meand are expecting me to come. I turn towards my right.There is the main highway. The roads are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[205],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corona-stories"],"authors":[{"term_id":219,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"nabinshabdadrishya-com","display_name":"Shabda Drishya"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shabdadrishya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shabdadrishya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shabdadrishya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shabdadrishya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shabdadrishya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/shabdadrishya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3082,"href":"https:\/\/shabdadrishya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions\/3082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shabdadrishya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shabdadrishya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shabdadrishya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shabdadrishya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}