“Man, I had forgotten how bright the sun was”, I thought,
as I crawled out of my cave under the rock. No, I wasn’t in hiding. I had somehow
managed to lock myself in my secret lair. Over the past few years, I managed to
build a piece of metal that perfectly matched this other piece of metal I had
that opened the door to the lair. But that’s a story for another day.
As my eyes adjusted to the bright light, my cravings for
a delicious meal started growing. Imagine being locked in with limited supplies
and no food delivery. Go ahead. I bet you can’t.
I looked around, on this April afternoon and was
surprised to see, what was usually a bustling marketplace, completely deserted –
both devoid of human presence and blistering hot. “Must be a public holiday or
another strike” I thought, as I plugged in my earphones and scrolled through my
playlist to find a suiting soundtrack for the moment. My search for food had
begun with music in my ear - “I walk a lonely road, the only road that I have
ever known….”
But alas, that’s all that played, because I forgot to
charge them. “Stupid Bluetooth things!” I yelled in frustration, but was also quite
content that I got to walk to that one line of the song. Full feels I tell you.
By now, my phone had caught Vodaphony network and was buzzing as it received
10,000 Whatsapp messages, 15 million SMSs for insurance, mutual funds and
something that looked like a push to download a government app. “Aaanndd, swipe
to dismiss. Let’s find me some food.”
My body was still adapting to the sudden sensory
overload, but I was pretty sure that I could hear voices around. Multiple
voices. But they all seemed to Zoom around,
saying the same thing. “CAN YOU HEAR ME?” I wondered what happened while I was
locked in. Was this now a ghost town filled with deaf ghosts?
I quickly reached for my phone to check the news app to
find out what was happening. Waiting 5 minutes for the ads to load on my trusty
cellular data connection, I closed it and decided to go to the next best
source. Whatsapp!
Scrolling through the 10,00,000 messages now, I saw
something about India’s biggest and longest celebration being cancelled – the IPL.
I also glanced at some negative thoughts towards bats. Voila! I put them
together. Why was everyone turning against Cricket bats? Did Kohli break all
records and with it, the sport itself?
I decided to check with my friend, an expert on the
subject to see what was up. “Hey Batman!” I said, as the person on the other
side of the call answered. But I realised that it wasn’t Batman, when a woman
replied, “Sorry, Batman is not available for comment. I didn’t know the bat
personally nor has ever met it” It was his PR team working frantically to
clean-up some mess.
I then decided to slow things down as I tried to recall
the messages I skimmed through on my phone. Accolades for India. Multiple satellite
images of India during Diwali. Good morning messages. Indian National Anthem declared
BeSt In WoRlD by UNESCO. Something saying ‘Real heroes don’t wear capes’, and
was thankful that while I had forgotten my cape at my hideout, I was still
meeting the latest superhero fashion guidelines.
But just then, it struck me! What if India is paying
UNESCO for these awards? I noted it down as something to investigate later.
Right now, there are more pressing issues in hand. I managed
to get a hold of the latest newspaper. I
was stunned by what I read. A virus had taken over the world. And the only way
to stop it was to wear a mask, social distancing, no handshakes and regular
washing of hands. “I’m doing all of this anyway. Except for the handwashing bit”,
I thought.
Everything around started making sense now as I started
walking back to my hideout.
It’s been 15 days since this incident and I’ve not been
able to digest what’s happening in the world. I think about what the future
holds for the world. One thought keeps me up at night - If everyone wears a
mask, will thieves start robbing without masks?
This is SuperCraig signing out, reminding you to do your
bit to reduce the effects of this pandemic.
And remember, two’s company but three’s the start of a
contagion.
