Lockdown hours (sound within)

The working hours are extended by 1 hour daily. Nice are the days when I used to work in the office. The rush in the canteen, the unending chats going on in the cafeteria. Now it is work from home mode. Sitting in my home watching the laptop with my eyes open. Working is no fun right now except for the fact expenses are under control. The bus fare, sudden unplanned uber bookings, long wait at the return auto stand have ceased fully. Now the only thing is work from home has made everyone a robot. I am just one corporate slave who is just on a daily race to complete the daily allocation assigned to him. I am Palash Basu Roy, working in a USA banking process in a big MNC in Kolkata. 

The day was Friday and I was almost done with my work. All of a sudden I felt a whispering in my ears. I had a tough week, client calls are very tough, the deadlines and volumes are unmanageable. I did my best but 2 of my co-workers are down with COVID. I am single-handedly preparing 3 major client reports. Every day my shift gets extended by 1-2 hours daily. Once I am done with my reporting part I was ready to wrap up my work. It was anyways May month and I was having the room AC on. Electricity bills have gone up and I hate to admit but I cannot stay without AC. I stay in the flat alone. This is my own flat where I stay since I have joined my present organization. COVID has opened up a lot of scope and avenues. People become content creators, social media celebrities, etc. For myself, I am just a person who loves to have food, good drink, and some OTT platform web series that is my life. But that whispering sound in my ears got me back. I cannot figure out what exactly is happening. I tried to shift my focus somewhere else but I heard a whisper yet again. This time it is a clear voice. " You cannot live like this. Let's bring an end." I thought it was my hallucination. But I was wrong. I put my headphone on but I can still feel the impact. There is some presence in this room that is invisible. I cannot understand what is happening. On the ceiling, I can see a spider circling a bee. The bee is tied up captive helplessly and is in complete control of the spider who is just waiting to devour it. I looked at the window is there someone outside the window glass. I stay on 4 the floor of the apartment. However the presence of the entity is invisible but it,s presence can be easily felt. A black shadow maybe just behind me. If I look behind I can see it. 

A notification flashed on my mobile screen. COVID wave 2 has hit INDIA more than one lakh infected in a day and the count is increasing. COVID is a pandemic with no permanent cure. The mask is the new way of life. Another news farmers are committing suicide in the capital of Dehli. The world has taken a sadistic turn and one needs to ensure just to survive from this apocalypse. How can one stay safe and protect yourself from the virus. You are bound to get infected one day or the other. If you get infected everyone around you will hate you. They will treat you like an enemy. You will be thrown into a covid ward where you will die anyway. Even if you survive the attack people will still look at you with suspicion. The spider is devouring the fly slowly. The fly knows it is fully secure captive in the web of the spider. Still trying to get free. "Let's die, anyways everyone is going to die someday. Today or tomorrow, COVID or non covered you will die so do not delay". The sound is coming clearly in my ears that too from behind or maybe I am wrong. The sound is coming from my head. But the question is who is it. I am trying to locate the source of the sound the exact source. Work pressure has increased, salary increments have dipped to low levels of a mere 4-5 percent. I got a mere 1200 monthly hike this year. Just a comfortable working from home with controlled expenses never justify that bills are not to be paid. Since lock downside incomes which I did from small freelancing has stopped fully. No extra income is coming. And on top of that, there is this new fear of automation in the IT / BPS industry. A percentage of people might end up getting unemployed. Each and every worker in this industry is facing depression, stress, anxiety. I thought of washing my face with water and went near the basin. On splatting water on my face I looked up and screamed. I can see a scary face in the mirror. It is me only who I can see in the mirror. But a dark version of myself. The eyes are red, the face is pale white, and no eyebrows. A scary-looking dark, negative vibe image of myself is on the opposite side of the mirror. The eyes on the image are very sharp. It is trying to convey a message to me. I cannot understand what exactly is the message. The sound is very distinct playing inside my head. I can hear the voice, " Die bro Die, die bro die, Die bor die." The eyes are hypnotized. I cannot sense anything. I just grabbed a rope and tied a knot on my neck and tied the other part of it on the ceiling. I somehow wanted to resist myself from doing that. But my hands are not in my control neither are my mind. The knot is tied and I hung myself. The pain is temporary and then only eternal darkness with no feeling, no pain absolute silence in a pitch dark dimension. 

** LOCAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT UPDATE IN DELTA HOUSING APARTMENT AN YOUNG IT/ BPS employee of a big MNC committed suicide out of depression by hanging himself from the ceiling fan. The guy was locked in his room for the last 3 months not going outside in corona pandemic time. Work pressure was very much in his team. The reason is excessive stress, depression. **