Homebound

      "You can leave now." A simple make-or-break statement. While it seems as a boon to a patient who succeeded in his treatment sessions, it comes as a bane

 to a parent who was asked to surrender their laptop to the Human Resources. While one leaves with a bewitching smile, the other stumbles with a heavy heart 

thinking about a promised motorbike to their 21 year old son. 

       While in one dimension people are harshly falling prey to the recession, in the other there is a 65 year old man who can't open his novelties shop due to a 

pandemic. While in one people are madly running around to stock their houses with bread, in the other they're waiting for someone to save them in all ways a 

person can be saved. 

       While in one ICU, a mother is having her last video call with her children, in the other there is a grandmother receiving a bouquet of white daisies for her 

successful recovery from the virus. "Stay home, stay safe" they said. "This quarantine can save the nation" they chanted. Hence we can see what exactly it ensued;

a brother denying his little sister's wish to go to the park, a street vendor selling miscellanious goods going home unemployed, a man getting denied his 

first-aid for an injury since the out-patient is closed at every hospital. An epidemic unleashed a whole lot of nerves; everyone's thoughts are going haywire on

 the inevitable line between life and death.  

       The consistent news of the virus outbreak in the TV broke her reverie about the lockdown-life. Amidst the chaos, a young girl sat back and reflected

 upon the world both inside and outside of her, while her chair rocked continuously. She pondered over the probability of upheaval her persona can go through

during these 'coronacation' days. As she carefully yet freely unbridled her thoughts, she felt her heart reaching out to all those on streets 

searching for a place to lock themselves down for the quarantine. She also felt like she's gone to those places where she no longer has to escape reality. She

 realized that she too, just like those homeless, is in need of a home. Except this 'home' can be a person, or a place, or a book, or just a mere fantasy. The concept

 of introspection is nothing foreign to her. The only thing that practically bugs her all the time is if it's destructive or constructive.We’re told to poke twigs 

into the anthills of past humiliations, past heartaches, past discomforts, which make us uncomfortable. In fact, she almost loathes it.

       But before she even realized it, she found herself amidst the myriad of thoughts and she's unable to wrap her head around all of them. She simply chose to

sit back and watch them as they take over her every nerve leaving only muddled up issues in her body. For once, she chose not to fight them and that's all it took

for them to invade her every fibre and control her. As she was fully encased in her mid-day musings, the news reader on the TV continuously spoke about how the

civil officers thrashed those who supposedly disregarded the curfew norms. 

       She took a deep breath, pulling every mishap and ignorant deeds of both her inner and outer worlds. She slowly walked in a daze to fetch her journal and add

today's therapy of introspection while thinking "and if today, all you did was hold yourself together, I am proud of you."

Pic courtesy : Pinterest