Living in the times of Lockdown
Is curiously surreal,
For spaces we, the humans leave, are claimed by others,
Like pigeons come in flocks to dance on the chowrasta,
Where before lockdown, cars stood bumper to bumper,
Blaring horns, letting out sooty smoke;
A friend from Gurugram sent me a picture of serious traffic
signal violation on a thoroughfare there-
A grand peacock slowly, almost leisurely walking across
the road, oblivious of the traffic lights turning green;
Dolphins, showed on tv, danced their ways near the Marine
Drive at Mumbai,
They looked surprisingly happy,
No fishing boats to chase them;
The sky of my city never looked so clear and blue
Like it did now,
The trees looked greener too,
And the roads, so clutter free.
Covid 19 outbreak has brought into fore
How in the time of distress and panic
Religion closes its doors and even family members
become distant,
How even the dead bodies are left behind,
How Fear controls every bit of us,
And how the old ways of enjoying life in rest and repose
Had been the most perfect ways to lead our lives,
And above all, how it is that home is all that matters at the
end of the day.
This life is good,
You and I,
Looking at each other
And heaving a sigh.
Moinak is a teacher and published fiction writer and poet , having got two literary and romance fictions to his credit. His third fiction will be out soon. An avid photographer and nature lover, he lives in Kolkata, India with his kid, wife and his pet dog.
Kolkata, India
Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic is an initiative sponsored by the Poetic Media Lab and the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis at Stanford University.
Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA),
Stanford University
Address:
4th floor, Wallenberg Hall (bldg. 160)
450 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305
Stanford Mail Code: 2055