A Reader's Story of Lockdown Survival
The dawn of 25th March brought along with it an eerie silence in the streets surrounding my house. On any regular day, morning in my street meant an early call of the fish seller promising a fresh catch of ilish mach , some jogger haggling with the vegetable vendor over the price of onions and a group of senior citizens crowded at a tea stall having their first tea of the day in a matir bhar and scanning the newspaper headlines . But not today. Today it echoed the sound of some deserted town straight out of a horror movie. Only hollow bark of dogs and a few caw- caws of crows filled the ears occassionally. As the morning heat began to fill my room I realised it was past my waking time. I have always been a night owl and the early morning bustles in the street had been a source of disturbance for my late sleep in. As my eyes adjusted to the light outside the window I remembered that there was a pandemic raging outside and all the citizens of the country were under complet