Sunday 26 April 2020

QUARANTINE



This episode is in continuation of Episode 13 - Musical Masti and Episode 14 - Night Riders


It was about 10 pm on a sultry Saturday night; Anshuman had just finished his dinner. He picked up his phone and visited a few Instagram pages, including Lata's. He spent more than an hour catching glimpses of some scintillating images and ogled at them to his heart's content. He thanked his luck that he was living in the 21st century.

When he was convinced that nothing else was gonna excite him any more, he dialed Kavita's number. She didn't take the call until the fifth ring.

"Hi beautiful", he said in a tone that sounded cringy.

"Hi Anshu...how was your day?"

"You know...the usual...get back home from the bank...spend some time on calls discussing matters regarding the housing society...daily chores..."

"And Instagram...", she chuckled.

"You're wicked, that's what you are", he laughed, "Did you know that 10 people tested positive for COVID 19 in our area today?"

"Ten people? That's insane."

"Yeah...so far there have been about 28 cases in our area."

"Oh God", Kavita made her concern quite apparent, "Please be safe Jaanu."

"You stay safe too sweetheart", Anshuman's tone sounded grave, "Apparently there was some guy who was picked up by the police from outside your building gate a few nights ago."

"Outside my building gate? When was this?"

"The night I wanted to come over to meet you. There was some guy in a car right outside your gate."

"Uh Huh? What about him?"

"Well, the police took him for testing simply based on suspicion. Unfortunately, he turned out positive for..."

Before Anshuman could complete his sentence, he heard Kavita take a deep breath. The very next moment, she disconnected the call.

At the other side of the conversation, Kavita began sweating and felt her head spin.

A dreadful apprehension clouded her thoughts - "Was that Manoj who had tested positive? Does that mean I am infected too?"

A few miles away, Manoj was getting treatment in a hospital ward. There were questions is his mind,,,questions he had no answers for.

He and Kavita had met - more than just met - three or four times over the past two weeks. So, was it she who had infected him?

It seemed life was soon about to change for at least three people in the near future.


Idiosyncrasies of a Covidiot

All episodes so far 

Episode 01 - Aaho-Choo Story

Episode 02 Bus-Ted 

Episode 03 Bohemian Clapsody 

Episode 04 - Departmental Chor 

Episode 05 - Exceptionally Coarse 

Episode 06 - Fruits & Nuts 

Episode 07 - Gross Spread

Episode 08 - Helping Hands

Episode 09 - I Want to Break Free

Episode 10 - Jamboree

Episode 11 - Keep Safe Distance

Episode 12 - Let There Be Light

Episode 13 - Musical Masti

Episode 14 - Night Riders

Episode 15 - Order Order

Episode 16 - Papa the Great

Episode 17 - Quarantine

8 comments:

  1. The COVID would make us all doubt our own shadow someday.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think Anshuman is just playing tricks on them!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Did Manoj really test positive?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anshuman is spying on Kavita. Otherwise how would he know someone was picked up outside her gate.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Covid may not but fear surely will kill some of us !

    ReplyDelete
  6. Quarantine will bring forward many affairs like this one!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Amazing how people flout lockdown rules and go ahead meeting & infecting all!
    The chain of infection continues...

    ReplyDelete
  8. We're gonna have a lot of stories with this theme in the next few years. Well-done.

    I hope you and yours are staying safe and healthy during this difficult time.

    J Lenni Dorner~ Co-host of the #AtoZchallenge, Debut Author Interviewer, Reference& Speculative Fiction Author

    ReplyDelete

Type out your comment in the box above and click 'Publish'. You can use your Gmail credentials, alternatively, you could also post comments by keying in your name and the url of your website