Locked Down And Quarantined

Chapter-2

Six months had passed since the city was closed down. People started gathering at the market of Hazratganj – mainly farmers and daily laborers. They would come early in the morning and set up their vegetables and spices in front of closed shops of Hazratganj – on an old cloth or a sack made of rough woven twine. By now, they all knew Nisha. A high-class woman with long hair and fair skin. Comes alone in the morning, wearing different sarees every day. Never buys anything and keeps talking to herself – which was becoming a common sight throughout the city.
“No, No. This can not be the truth, this is not true. You are lying. You are a liar...Please save her. I beg you, Please…Do not let her die,” Nisha said.
Her eyes were filled with tears. She was on her knees – holding a little girl of about nine. Isaac was beside her. He wakes her up before dawn and makes her walk at least an hour a day.”
“But this is not in my control, Nisha. Her time is about to end, and now she must go to the real world and continue her life there,” Isaac said.
The little girl's mother was returning cough syrup to one of the vendors. She was shouting at him for giving her the expired one.
“Madam, this is all I have. I can not arrange a new one. And it just expired last month. Do you understand that if I throw it on the ground, people will kill each other to get it,” the vendor said with defiance.
The mother was furious. She was about to shout even more when she noticed her girl was not by her side. The little girl was sitting on one of the iron benches grounded along the road. A woman in a light green saree was holding her daughter. The mother was enraged – hugging was a dangerous thing during the epidemic. She came running to separate them but calmed down intuitively, seeing the expensive silk of the woman’s saree.
“What is the matter, beta?” She asked her daughter.
“She says I’m going to die,” the daughter said.
The mother did not pay much attention to what she said – everyone was going through the same pain. Everyone has seen someone die. It was quite possible in this atmosphere that a random woman who had lost her daughter would come up and try to hug her beautiful daughter to soothe her pain. But even though she had empathy towards another mother, she can not let that happen any longer.
“Mam, please do not do that,” the mother said while pulling her daughter's arm. “And stop scaring my girl.”
“But she is going to die,” Nisha said. “She is going to die tonight.”
The little girl has been feverish for two weeks. But the young mother was not ready to accept that she might have caught the virus.
“If she had the virus, I would be ill too,” the mother thought. Because of the high mortality rate and no cure – her mind was not ready to accept that some people are immune, and she should be prepared for what might be coming.
“Her time ends tonight. There is nothing anyone can do about it. Not even Isaac,” Nisha said.
“Stop It. Stop saying that…,” the mother said. The girl was just about to start crying.
“No. No. My child. Do not cry. It is okay. You will go to the real world, and you will go to the real school, and play with your friends. You will meet your real parents there.”
The mother could not take it anymore. She slapped Nisha.
“Come on now, enough. Let us go home, ” Isaac said.
***
Dhruv was growing fast – he had to – if he wanted to survive. He had started worrying about her mother. She had not taken any medicine ever since the city was closed down. On top of that, she never listens to him and vanishes, hours at a time. Sometimes she comes late at night, and he would not know where to find her.
"Why do you do that, mother? " Dhruv asked.
"Do you want me to lock you up when I go out?" Dhruv said after hearing about the morning incident. He had already stocked up the supplies. There was no reason that she should go out.
"You would not understand, son – the pain of a mother, " Nisha said. "She will die tonight."
It was eleven thirty. Dhruv made her lay on her bed – thinking she might sleep for a few hours. Lost in her thoughts, she rolled up to the opposite side and gazed at the flickering flame of the candle. He was sick of hearing about her hallucinations, but he could not do much.
Although she was never normal, in the past – she had her wits most of the months of the year.
"So you would not stay at home? It is not safe to go outside, mother."
"Isaac said walking is good for my health, " Nisha said.
Dhruv did not want to acknowledge her hallucinations. His father taught him that it is not good for her psyche. And he did not want to imply that she is sick either – she takes offense to that.
"So you will not stop going out?"
She did not reply. After blowing out the candle – Dhruv locked the bolt of her room and went to his room. In the morning, around 6 am, Dhruv was woken by the screams coming from Nisha's room.
"Ajit is calling me. Open the door…Open the door, son.”
Nisha was beating the door of her room.
As soon as he opened her door, she rushed out. Dhruv was devastated seeing her like this. He was holding the spasm in his throat. He had an intense desire to go somewhere, far away from all this, and just cry. Cry his heart out.
"Open up, dear, "Nisha said, banging up the shutter of Ajit's shop.
"I'm Nisha. Open up, love."
"I am so sorry. Please open up. Are you mad at me because I do not make breakfast anymore?"
Nisha said, and a smile came on her lips as though how foolish her husband was, getting mad at such little things. She always loved cooking, but Isaac would not let her get near the gas stove.
"Okay, baba. I will make you – your favorite Gajar ka halwa today. Now open up."
It was dawn. Farmers had started to come.
“This was the shop of her late husband. Died in the epidemic,” a farmer said to his wife, “Looks beautiful, not too old, lost her mind after her husband died…such a pity. These upper-class people are not like us. Very delicate, they are not used to struggling. We were struggling for food yesterday, and we are struggling for food today. The only difference is, now everybody is struggling. Everybody is same.”
After five minutes – Dhruv came running.
“Let us go, mother,” he said.
“You go on Dhruv. I will come with Daddy.”
“How did you know? How did you know?” The little girl's mother cried – she stood in front of Nisha. Her daughter was not with her. Her voice trembled, eyes looked red, puffy, and swollen.
“Where is she now? You said she will go somewhere? Is she in heaven? Is she happy ?” asked the mother. Tears and sweat wet her face.
“Yes. She is happy. Do not worry about her,” Nisha said in consolation, putting a hand on her shoulder.
This was something new. No one paid attention when Nisha was banging the shutter of Ajit’s shop. But now, people had started to gather around them.
The voices could be heard among the crowd,
“Who's girl? Hers? Yeah, she slapped her yesterday. I saw that. My grandmother had a cat who would never let anyone cuddle, the day she died, it never left her side. It is true – some people can tell. My son told me to look after his mother – he knew.”
The mother felt a little comfort. She grabbed Nisha's hand and gave them a little kiss.
“She will be alright, ” Nisha said while giving her a hug.”
Everyone there felt a little warmth inside. The young mother looked at the crowd. There was empathy in everyone’s eyes. Her heart felt light, as though people had soaked her pain.
"I do not have much, but this belonged to her. I want you to have it," the woman said while closing Nisha's fist. It was a necklace with a golden chain. A word hung in middle as a pendant, "Diva"
                                                                    ***
It was around 9 pm, and Nisha had forgotten her way home. The sky was clear. It was a full moon. Nisha wore a white saree that glowed and looked distinct, even from a distance. Her hair touched her waist. Straight and open, they streamed in the dry and cool winds of pleasant summer eve. Her saree shimmered in the dark, and she bathed in the sky-blue light of the night. Her skin, fair and smooth, soaked the color of the moon.
She was thinking about the little girl. The ordeal she had been through. She was glad that her time was over and hoped her mother’s time would come soon too. So she could be relieved of her pain.
“Hey boys, is this the way to Hazratganj?”
By now, the electricity was entirely gone. Nisha saw a fire – burning at a distance, and came here to ask the way. Five guys, each in his early twenties, were sitting around the pit of fire, and cheap empty glasses, like the ones used for serving tea in the olden days, lay around the chairs. It was the famous crossroad of Gomti Nagar. And the guys were guarding the borders of their colony.
“O…O…O, look who we have here,” said one of the guys – jumping up from his chair in excitement. He was a thin guy of about 5.1". He wore a filthy check-shirt of some color that can not be determined. The upper two buttons of his shirt were either broken or stolen. The arms of the shirt were folded below the elbow, and his hands were like twigs coming out of there.
“Where did you come from, madam?” he asked.
“Hazratganj, I lost my way home.”
“Lost your way home? At this hour? Don’t you fear that someone would do something to you, seeing such a slim waist?…damn! , ” the guy said after looking up and down. Touching her waist – he circled around her.
A storm thundered a few kilometers in the west and a stray dog, sitting beside the fire, started howling.
“Yeah, I have become thin. I do not get that hungry anymore. You should have seen me when I was pregnant with Dhruv. I looked like a buffalo, ” Nisha said smiling.
“And because of walking. Isaac says I should not stay alone in a room. So I walk.”
The buffalo remark stirred up a lot of delight among the boys – and they all started giggling, showing their teeth, tainted red with the chewing tobacco. All were visibly elated except one, Sid, the guy by the grace of whom they managed to get the tobacco even after six months into the epidemic.
“Oh, madam! Why would you need to be alone when we all are here to help,” the thin guy said and winked at Sid, who had a glass bottle in his hand. He was watching Nisha very seriously. He never gave any attention to the thin guy.
Sid threw the empty bottle into the fire, and it burst into a blaze. He was a young man of about twenty. His color was fair, and he wore a black t-shirt and blue jeans. His dark green adventure shoes looked brand new and his hair, although not combed, looked washed.
“Isaac,” Sid said. “Why didn't he come along? Your husband lets you go alone at night? Doesn’t he care about your safety?”
“Oh. Isaac is not my husband – my husband is angry with me. And he would not come home, only Isaac comes. But he goes away after an hour or two. He used to come at night, but nowadays, he comes early in the morning.”
“Wow,” Sid’s eyes widened. “Saying that so casually. No wonder your husband would not come home.”
“But who am I to judge? Locked in the city, we all are going to die here anyway.”
“O you. Do not say that, dear. Isaac says everyone will live happily after six months or a year,” Nisha said. “Now I am getting late. Would you tell me the way to Hazratganj?”
“What is the hurry, madam?” said Sid while folding his hand.
He put a finger on his lips and said, “I have a bike, and we have some petrol left. We were saving it for emergencies like this. Why don’t you sleep with me, and tomorrow, I will personally take you to your home. I am sure Isaac would not mind. ”
“Really?” Nisha’s face lit up for a moment.
“No, no. My son must be worried. I have to go now. He scolds me when I get late.”
“Ok, ok. You know what? Let us go to my house. We will have a few drinks,” Sid said while pointing his thumb to his lips. “Then I will take you home, I promise.”
“I don’t drink. But you can have it. I will wait.”
“Alright. You can have some juice then.”
Sid fulfilled his promise. But It was morning when they reached Hazratganj. Sid was hungover. He had a feeling of guilt in his gut.
He gets the feeling like this every time he drinks too much. But today, he was not sure if the alcohol was to blame.
“Drinking stops today,” he said to himself.
It was only in the morning when he noticed something was off with this woman. And for a moment, he was glad that the city was locked and the police were busy with the distribution.
“Listen here. Open your mouth,” Sid said. He did not want to go to her home. So he dropped her in the market of Hazratganj.
Nisha opens her mouth and Sid drops a pill in there. “Swallow it.”
“Ohh…It's so bitter,” said Nisha after swallowing the pill.
“Yeah, but it will save you a lot of trouble in the future,” Sid said while returning. “And do not go out at night. Just don’t.”
Nisha felt weary. She slept for eight hours after drinking the orange juice offered by Sid, and now it was morning. She looked around. Her lips curved with a warm smile seeing Isaac on the other side of the road. He waved at her after wiping his tears.
“Are you crying?” Nisha asked when they came closer. “You are, aren't you?”
“No, not crying,” he said, wiping the last bit of tear from the palm of his hand.
“Look at my face, ” Isaac said.
“What?”
“Just look at the details of my face,” Isaac said while putting his hands on her shoulders. “My eyes, eyebrows, my ears, chin, and hair. Try to remember my voice. The way I talk, the pitch, the pace, the tone. Try to remember as many of these as you can.”
“Now close your eyes.”
Nisha followed.
“Try to imagine as much as you can. The nose, the ear, the chin, eyebrows, eyes, and hair.”
"Imagine I’m saying something. Are you doing that?”
“Yes, a little.”
“Think hard.”
Nisha pressed her temples with the help of her palms, “Yes, yes, now I can. I can see you.”
“Now, open your eyes. I want you to remember this face whenever you are lost, or if you are in any trouble, or even if you are just feeling lonely. I want you to close your eyes and picture me saying something, and I will come within an hour, no matter what. You have no idea what you mean to me.”
***