Lockdown: Before and After

I was born just three months back. I hardly used to get anything to eat. I used to feed on the leftovers people used to throw at me. Somedays, I would be lucky to find a piece of bread or a piece of chapatti in the garbage. Life was going thus: a scrap or two in my stomach or nothing at all. The multitude of people walking and cycling scared me. Leave the automobiles. The noise and air pollution they made! I was scared and bound to the promise I made to my mother to cross the roads and look for food in other streets. My mother brought me a few scraps she could get. But she too had to remain alive. Life was so pitiful. I looked forward to people to give me food but they were too busy in their own lives to look after me.

Suddenly, I noticed the decline in the children on the roads. Such a relief! All they did was to pelt stones at me and pull my tail. Some kind souls used to give me a cookie or two. Rare times! I wondered what happened. I heard people talking about a virus that has the potential to put an end to every single human being’s existence. I disliked humans in general but this is not what I wanted. But what good or bad it was for me? My life would still be the same. I wagged my tail and went away, leaving them to contemplate the problem.

But I was wrong. This virus confined the people to their homes. No cycles or automobiles. I could now roam freely, cross the roads, go to different streets and bark at them and run away. A little power to tease those very kid were in my hands now. Or you can say, in my paws. So different the world felt without humans in it. I could run after the birds or the rats, without the fear of being run over myself. I could play with the ball I picked. Days passed and I forgot what it is to see multitudes of people.



Probably, my pitiable state, my cuteness or the fear of dying evoked humanity in humans. My mother tells me humans give, in order to receive. They try to donate, to please God so that he helps them survive this pandemic. I am now fed, sometimes overfed too. They invite me to have my meals. I have meals four times a day. The bread dipped in fresh milk, the chapatti with cream or a packet of cookies constitutes my meals. My mother too gets something to eat. They toss a bread or two at her while I am feeding. Sometimes, I leave a bit of my food so that she gets to eat it.

These times are a bliss to us. We go to sleep with full stomachs. My mother tells me that humans are smart, they have overcome many crises. ‘And this, too, shall pass away.’ This makes me miserable. We will then return to the time three months before. We will have to sleep with empty stomachs again. I would have to let my mother permit me to cross roads and play. It would be difficult for us to sleep in that pollution. They now look after me, but then they won’t.