Open Gates
“San Didi, is it a power outage, again?!”
…
“San Didi!!!”, I screamed at the top of my voice.
“Hya...Check it yourself; I’m busy.”
Lazily, I dragged my sluggish body up the bed, casting aside the copy I had in my hand, and went ahead towards the door to toggle the switch, just to find what I already knew -- it was loadshedding.
And seeing the pattern of the previous few days, I was sure that the line would not be restored any time soon.
Well, it was the third day in a row that my ‘online-classes’ had been hampered. The rest of the classes could be recovered -- we had access to recordings. However, this one teacher was different. He allowed no recording of the classes (god knows why)!
In a dismay of not having realized about the recording part before, I unplugged the earphone from my phone and threw it in the bed.
Lately, the classes had been a hassle -- classes from 10 to (some of the days, even) 4; assignments and ,of course, the lectures where no one understood a thing.
Our classes and the second “informal” lockdown had begun at quite the same time, so I hadn’t really got out of the house since then. And the prime reason for not being able to do that were the classes. So, since the classes were next to impossible for the day, I quickly went to check on Dad; he was home till late in the afternoon that day, so chances were that he would still be there then. It still hadn’t been 2, after all.
I was at luck. Dad was just about to leave for Jorpati.
“I’ll come, too!”
“You had classes, no?”
“Seems like they already kicked Kulman off.” I shrugged.
“Here!” He threw the bike keys at me. I went inside and quickly changed up from my general-plus-sized-comfy t-shirt and similar shorts with a Barcelona logo on it. Having changed to decent jeans and a shirt, I raced down the stairs to find the black Unicorn covered in dust.
Uff..., it hasn’t rained since 5 days.
After some two minutes, we were on our way. And not long after we were on the road, the pensiveness and solitude of the shops in the Medical College Chowk led me to thinking, “Who had thought a day like this would ever come?” We turned left, straight toward the Nepal Medical College’s Gate. The count of people was as low as it could get in the place which hosted, just some months back, a crowd of immense magnitude. The busy pharmacies were nearly deserted; except for a few customers who seemed to be readily terrified and were actually trying to maintain distance.
People really are shit scared.
Processing that as we were moving, off we went. A good half kilometers passed when we were at another such hub -- Arubari. There, though sparse, the count of people was considerably more. Shops -- bakeries, clothing stores, marts -- could be seen partially open here and there. And tentatively, one out of ten people were not wearing masks at all.
People can’t stay inside all the time, can they?
We were nearing our destination as we reached the main road of the area -- the Boudha-Narayantar Road. And, hell, was it busy! Bikes, cars and some trucks as well. Shops were, however, completely shut. Not a single open shutter was on sight. Still, people were on the streets -- that too, a lot, given the circumstances. Some people even were dashing around with others as they walked; of course, they didn’t have masks on.
People sure are such sheep.
Shortly, we turned left and headed for our furniture which was just a couple of blocks ahead. As we were about to turn, I briefly glanced at the place where our showroom was; it was shut, of course, as were every single shutter around.
Time really changed.
When I stepped inside the factory gate I could see quite a few tables, some chokchis, a couple of cupboards and some beds ready and stacked in the corner while two painters and two mistris were constantly working to finish new products.
Wow, they sure are working!
As I was advancing my steps, one of the mistris greeted me from afar, “Oho…..Seeing you after a long time. Where had you been?”
“My classes started; and the routine covers almost the whole day...hehe” I gave a slight grin to which he replied with an even more humble smile, that I could see because, well...he was not wearing a mask. Distancing was of least concern to them. After all, their world was intact, even though the rest of the world had halted. They hadn’t rested for a single day.
Similar factories were all open at the inside, throughout the place. “The precautions are but a feeble fable told by the elites.” I had heard the words in a tea shop a while back and that, now, at that moment seemed too relevant. Most of the people were living in a bubble that was floating in the air while the ones in the ground constantly strived for, not living, but survival. Ignorance had cost us too much, and still was counting numbers.
I looked up at the branches of a large Fig that stood green and firm before me and at the ones who were working around me. Both, too far ahead in the road to change paths now.
What else can they do, other than walk to work, after all?
