CORONA MONOLOGUE (3) -BY N P Samal

A REFUGEE

I know you are hiding. Fear of Corona has overwhelmed you. The fort of your house has protected you from all sides. It is said that one's home is the safest place, even safer than the heaven. Now, you are huddling in a corner like you did as an infant inside your mother's saree-skirts, in an unseen fear, or under your cut as a school kid, for fear of your father after yours pinching of his pocket was caught... Since then, in other numerous occasions you have made bushes, boughs, cattle sheds, backyard thickets, scrap stores, garbage dumps...your hideouts. Many fears petrified your past, but each time, you came out safe with only a minor or  little harsh admonishment... And now, you are hiding in side the fortification of your house, although nobly, while the virus is lurking near your doors and windows. The fear inside you is mounting each passing moment in dread of Corona's hideous look and the lethal suckers on the virus' body. In any moment, it may pounce upon you and stick itself to your throat. Then at a blink of the eyes, it will multiply itself to smother you to death. Oh, tragicsome!! You are speechless. You cannot hear a word. There is darkness allover, although the sky is aced with the brightest sun. You are hiding in a stiffling silence the trouble outside, the turbulence inside...

The other day, you were a hero. You encroached upon others' domains. You intimidated others with your popped out palm-fruit red eyes. Your anger, your recklessness, your hatred, your conceit, your vain glories, your muscles...all did project you the ruler of the world. But, now, in the refuge of cowardice, you are so humble, so wretched, and outside, the danger of the virus is looming large as Death is wrecking havoc in nooks and corners of the world...I know you wish to return to your den, er, kingdom, er, sanctuary. You wish to enjoy the same carte blanche. You wish to dictate the proletariats - the poor and the unprivileged. You wish to regroup your mafia syndicate. You wish to bring floods of foreign liquors onto the streets, fill the airs with the smoke balls of cigars, cow down each with your deafening brags...

May God grant your wishes! As you wish, so do you get. 'As is the desire, so is the fruit.' God never denies rich people of their wishes. ( Except beggars cannot ride on horses.) If people wish to be good, so will be they. If people wish to be bad, so will be they. If people wish to exploit others, so can they. If people wish to be exploited, so will they be. That is why there are the strong as well as the weak, the rich as well as the poor, the powerful as well as the powerless... Take for granted your each wish shall be fulfilled !

Just for now, you feel there is a Mahatma Gandhi inside you. Gandhi did not wish to see the bad, so he closed his eyes. He did not wish to hear the bad, so he closed his ears. He did not wish to speak the bad, so he closed his mouth. In this resigned state, he felt profound peace. So, have patience. Take heart...Close your eyes, you cannot see the viral fangs. Close your ears, you cannot hear the viral guffaws. Hush! Hush! Shut your mouth. The virus may hear you and find your hiding place. Remember how successfully you completed your self-exile in each of your hideouts during childhood. Now, nothing bad will happen to you. Just take Gandhi's three-monkey avatar. This marauding virus will blow over. Just feel free, stay put like the monkey statues on the poles...

I know, now and again, you sneak into your kitchen, open your fridge, gobble up something and scurry back to the chair or to a corner of your cot and sit with your legs and hands snuggled up tight onto your body - your heart inside your mouth. But do not huddle much. You may call upon another danger : obesity. You know, obesity is one of the world's four biggest dangers. It also takes lives like Corona. Corona will go some day, but the virus will leave behind for you this global danger. When you will return to your den/kingdom/sanctuary, you will be a laughing stock. People will treat you as a joker. Even beggars will taunt you. So, please avoid eating-plus-sitting. Take skipping rope and hop on. If the rope is not available, you make a rope out of your wife's tattered saree. Walk with your hands with your legs held upward - touching the sky. Be on all fours and ask your child to sit on your back, then move about the floors. Or, be a monkey, or a bear, or a donkey, then run after your children in order to frighten them. Or, fight with your wife. Or, dance to a 'Sambalpuri' number like 'Rangabati...'. Or, follow the ubiquitous Ramdev and contort your frame into numberless postures...

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