CORONA MONOLOGUE (1) -- By N P Samal

THE OUTBREAK 

China's 2002 SARS-COV has returned in its new avatar as COVID-19, popularly Corona virus or Corona in short. WHO panics and promptly responds declaring it a pandemic, as the virus emerges from Wuhan, China, and looks straight westward at the Organization. The whole world drops dead as the virus begins its onslaught right from its birthplace. It marches on. It jumps from country to country, continent to continent - an epidemic without border - as follow frightening sounds of cough, groans of fever, pants of broken breaths, sighs of fatigue...caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome. The pandemic, they say, is the so-called Apocalypse, much more devastating than its forefathers. It strangles people to death within fourteen days of its onset. Acute respiratory failure, pneumonia, septic shock, blood clots, chronic fatigue,  acute injuries to heart, kidney, liver, then death of the whole body within the span of two seven-day periods, while people have thought of living for at least seventy years. Some have even planned to be centenarians and some to set world record of longest living humans. Yet, there are also some 'Patanjalic' fanatics who are confident of living for ever -- till the end of the universe... Oh, will they survive the Marauder?

All are crestfallen! Boyfriends, girlfriends, rain-dancers, party-goers, metro-sexuals, smugglers, bootleggers, business icons, industrialists, traders, developers, traffickers, predators, peddlers, dalals, agents, multinationals, globe-trotters, fliers, travelers, and revelers. So also, workers, daily-wagers, beggars, jumble-sellers, hawkers... All are hugely shaken, on tenterhooks! Race cars, speed bikes, bullet trains, drones, dragons, cruise missiles, interceptors, bombers...all are motionless. Film halls, temples, mosques, churches, monuments, heritage sites, resorts, parks, city-centers, multiplexes...all look derelict, haunted... Youths, old folks, children, adolescents, men, women...all have disappeared. Junk foods, foreign liquors, sweets, pani puris, samosas, idlis, masala dosas, butter naans, dahi-vadas...all are insipid, flavorless. Love, romance, marriage, honeymoon...all are dampening, tawdry. The whole hustle-bustles, hullabaloos, babbles, gossips, communes, curses, clappings...are soundless, and silent.

Everyone is confused. Everything is confusing. Are they all fact or fiction? Real or illusory? Activities or imagery? Living or non-living? The whole atmosphere looks unearthly, scary. But there is no time to think. The Virus can take us by the neck any moment. Quarantine, locking in, face-covering, hand washing, locking down, shutting down, social distancing, etc, etc, they say, can prevent the Virus from invading us. They say, the invisible enemy of humanity is clever enough to sneak into the nose, eyes, and mouth, and once inside, it will multiply itself into millions in a matter of hours and like teeming locusts, they will eat up our lungs, kidney, heart, everything as we painfully gasp for life, then groan to death. Oh, so tragic!!!

Everybody is scared of going into any activity. They have stumped their feet, tied up their hands, blocked the nasal passage with baby wipes, held their eyes clenched with just a pinhole in one to see...All are tight-lipped and using sign languages like body gestures, para-linguistic sounds, and other peculiar telegraphic symbols to ensure themselves that they are alive.

The lovers have stopped kissing (if they could at all come together). Even they are scared of flying kisses. The couples have stopped mating (each doubts the other having the virus). Extramarital affairs have flattened to the base. There are no chattings. No textings. No 'sextings'. No telephonic talks. (Who knows the electronic media may not communicate the virus?)... Everybody has turned 'fobic', paranoid. Anything can be the agent of contamination...

The whole State mechanism has broken down. Both Central and State governments have been paralyzed. All formal as well as informal institutions, lawful and unlawful assemblies, interest groups, civic bodies, sports leagues, charitable societies, political as well as apolitical unions, opium dens, betting clubs, youth clubs, dance clubs, stag parties, hen parties, all other miscellaneous associations and organizations are defunct or dead.

Beggars do not extend their shaking bowls deep into the middle of the road. Pimps do not pester you for immoral activities. Children do not swarm around the hooded pets of the snake charmer. There are no gatherings of the carnivores at the butcher's. No rush of flesh-eaters at the red-light gutters. No hordes of ganja smokers at mathas, akharas, and ashrams. No bhajan-kirtans at temples. No congregations at mosques or churches... The aphorism, "Man is a gregarious animal" is taken for a toss. All political, social, cultural, religious, traditional, and mercantile hustle-bustles have fallen quiet. Streets, pindis, chhaks, parks, city-centers...all look derelict. 

Greed has declined. Hunger has died. Adrenalines do not run rash. Desires have been disillusioned. Savings have been sealed. Human wants seem limited. The poor are happy with poverty. The rich think 'Enough is enough.' The average give credit to theirs being well-balanced...

But children are the worst sufferers. They are deprived of new toys, vendor's ice cream, merry-go-rounds, playmates, play yards, streets, street plays... Their parents have got to appease the playful rebels by showing them TV cartoon shows but with minimal or no volume (lest the virus may know their hiding) or by parting their beloved mobile phones with them. As children hug the phones for maximum time of the day, their parents also suffer the maximum as they hugely miss the romantic messages from their respective office mates, business messages, chattings with relatives or extramarital partners, searching on the browser apps, drooling over x-rated video contents... Some others those who suffer interminably are pimps, solicitors, demonstrators, hippies, pickets, hooligans, mercenaries... But the really cursed are daily-wagers, laborers, marginal vendors, cobblers, rag-pickers...

Perishable goods rot. Durable goods perish. Capital goods get junk... Gyms lie shut for muscle tissues to break down, cinemas have downed the curtains for big screen enthusiasts only to be satisfied with streaming videos, hotels have shelved their culinary stuff to deny the software professionals the multi-cuisine appetizers...

There are no conflicts, no competitions, no pulling of legs, no tugs of war, no backstabbings, no collisions, no scuffles, no fisticuffs, no shakings or shovings of hands, no gyrating of hips, no slaps, no kicks, no reasons to punish, no reasons to get punished... There are no sunbathers, no ogglers. No sports, no spectators. No fortune-tellers, no fatalists. No designers, no wannabes. No trainers, no trainees. No acrobats, no onlookers. No politicians, no followers. No barats, no street dancers...

With the first Covid case in India on January 30, 2020, all 1.34 billion Indians are shell-shocked, as the yawning fear swallows up the February...

-- N. P. SAMAL, POET, AUTHOR, ACADEMIC