I take a moment to assimilate what is happening in the country currently. People desperately scrounging for hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and Remdisivir. A government which fails to act on these needs, a plethora of Whatsapp forwards which are adding to the panic and a growing population of fools who refuse to stay indoors - all of this infuriates me. Having stayed indoors for more than a year now and not having socialised or met anyone besides my family, i often feel helpless. I feel it is grossly unfair that people get to continue with their lives as if nothing has happened while i have to stay indoors to protect myself. Initially the proposition was to protect my parents and now it is to protect myself. The danger however lies with the fact that i could have not moved out at all but others who come in contact with me may have.This invariably makes me vulnerable to the virus even though i am housebound all the time. I try to reason this out another way. I am an introvert. So why do...

She retrieved the end of the  pallu which was dangling freely from her shoulder and tied it across her waist. She wiped off a couple of beads of sweat from her brow and bent down to pick up the steel bucket of wet clothes. She took a giant step to avoid the broken wooden ridge at the entrance of the hut which was erected last year to hold back the incessant rain water from seeping in. She thought to herself this needed to be repaired before the monsoons arrive. She jhatkaofied  each cloth with force before hanging it to dry on a nylon rope which was tied across the length of the compound wall. The spray of droplets against her face soothed her in this balmy weather. A ray of sunlight emanated through the branches of a huge banyan tree outside her house and fell on her face, like a spotlight. She turned to look at the source with a cupped palm against her forehead and one twitched eye. It was noon, her son would be home anytime. She quickly completed her chore and entered the ...