Corona Diaries 14, The Warrior

Corona is here to stay, so to say. At home, Mr. Rajesh was taking all possible precautions, right from thorough dry cleaning of vegetables to disposing the waste off in separate paper bags. In fact, he was the whole and soul of the entire family who used to care for each and every member of the family and that would take him at least 2 hours to buy the groceries, fruits, vegetables and what not, that too maintaining social distancing, because his family consisted of people ranging from a toddler of 2 years old to an elderly person as old as 80 years.

Rajesh was such a good Samaritan that he would never say 'no' to anyone. While his wife was no different. She would wait for him to come home and would take pains to clean, wash, and dry the vegetables, in particular and after Rajesh would go and take bath, she would serve him good, tasty food along with other family members.

He also had done a bit of charity too. He had helped the garbage picker get his groceries enough for a month to which the garbage picker was always grateful for. He sometimes used to feed the stray dogs with buns and biscuits from the grocery store.

He had slept late the night before because of which he woke up late the next morning after hearing the garbage pick up truck's honk. In a hurry, he had forgotten to wear his mask and had kept the garbage bags outside his home. On seeing the garbage picker's face, did he realize that he hadn't worn the mask. He remembered the day when he had scolded him for not wearing the mask. He realized his mistake and he thought of moving inside his house, but was stopped by the garbage picker's voice calling out for him. He pretended as though he didn't hear anything, but the whistle blown by the garbage picker stopped him.

Rajesh turned back, the garage picker held a stick in his hand from which a cover was hanging. He murmured something from his mouth, which Rajesh couldn't hear. Then he signalled Rajesh to pick the cover from his stick and before Rajesh could even speak, he left picking up the garage cover. Rajesh covered his mouth and took the sanitizer that he had kept on the compound and cleaned the cover given by the garbage picker before opening it. He was dumb struck on seeing what was inside the cover. It was a face mask that cost not more than 200 bucks. Rajesh turned back to have a look at the garbage picker who in Rajesh's eyes had become the real corona warrior....