“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
It was around five in the evening but the sun's rays were beating harshly with the onset of summer. The massive road was bare, sand blew mutely from the muddy footpath. The eerie silence matched the tranquillity. The puppies playfully ran across the road fearlessly as they had stopped hearing the din of the traffic. The Pandemic caused due to Corona Virus disease had found its way to India. India, a populous country needed to cut down the rate of growth of the infection. This prompted the Indian Government to a lockdown situation all over India for twenty-one days. We have been at home a week before the lockdown too owing to the impact felt in Maharashtra, India.
That evening, a family of four lugged a huge shoddy white bag. The lady carried an infant nestled in her arms, and the man carried the huge white bag while a five-year-old boy lingered behind. The man was lean, tall with sunburnt skin. He wore a crumpled checks shirt, a pair of trousers that were shorter than his ankles and a dirty blue surgical mask covered his nose and mouth. The lady had a soft muslin cloth wound around her face. She was clad in a sari, though she was young her forehead displayed a series of wrinkles, her eyes were filled tears and fear. The little boy had a pale blue surgical mask but the infant had none. They looked around. The entire stretch on the large road had no passersby. Fear of the disease and respect for the Prime Minister's word had done wonders. The family quickly put down their bag and started poking the trash. Plastic shells flew by, empty bottles of cold drinks, wooden cartons as remnants of the online shopping, calcareous shells of eggs, fibrous heads of the coconuts and many more. The trash smelt terrible but the family was concerned about the income they made from the trash. They hoped against hope that they could sell the bagful of trash and make money for the next three days. The rest could be managed.
They procured as much trash as they could. The shoddy bag was full now. It was heavy and they could fill no more. They walked fast to reach home. They lived in the shanties close to the large buildings. These shanties were made out of aluminium sheets. A short doorway revealed dry ground that had been plastered with water. A few essentials were piled to one corner and the rest of the house was for resting and sleeping. Each shanty had some space in the front which was skillfully transformed into cooking space with short raised walls. There was some space, in fact very little space between two shanties where the family usually dumped their bags. They found a large crowd standing near their shack. They suddenly wondered whether it was a casualty due to Corona Virus. The man pulled the mask tightly around his face and walked fast. As they reached the shack, they saw that the crowd wasn't as large as it seemed. The social distancing was followed but they kept yelling at their neighbour, a lady who was washing the dishes near her shanty. They walked faster to understand the matter, their little boy now slipped away, he had found his friends and moved away to play with them. The infant yawned and opened her eyes to understand what was going around.
The lady kept washing her dishes and the crowd kept admonishing her for storing water. A pale new water-pipe was connected to a tap which was almost concealed in the ground. The lady pleaded to say, 'please fill water after I fill the water-drum’. The drum had a capacity of 500 litres. It was given by the landlady for whom she worked. With the onset of the Pandemic, there was a greater need to reserve water. The others wanted to fill water too. They needed water to wash their hands with soap, they needed water to wash before changing into clean clothes. They nurtured a fear that water could stop by the time the lady filled the huge drum. Just as the commotion went on, they saw another family who lived in one of the shanties rush back. The man lay a clean cloth on the ground and the lady took some grain from the sack, she filled it in the winnower and began winnowing the grains. The crowd now turned to look at the winnowing and excitement the family felt. The family said, ' Five extra kilos of wheat for free and there's hardly anyone there to claim it'. All the heads turned to listen to her with great attention. And then, there was a quick scramble, the people in the shanties distributed the duties to a few to go to the ration shop. The lady who was washing the dishes pulled out the new water-pipe and left the tap of water for the others to fill. A few gathered their pots, to wash, a few began to get things ready to cook their dinner and a few left the place in a hurry to buy the additional five kilos of grain that was being distributed freely.
“You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace.” ― Frank McCourt,
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