One day I flew away
And what did I see?
Lamp posts plastered with election manifestos
Crisping at the edges
In the heat of the pre-monsoon sun
Politics played second fiddle to the virus
Roadside shutters opened
To reveal aquariums
Bettys and cories
Minnows and mollies
Feasting on snails and brine shrimp
Oblivious to the infected street beggars
Squatting on the pavement
Slum dwellers queued behind
The municipal pickup
For rations of flour and potatoes
Rice paddies defied the pandemic
But crops couldn’t get
Past lockdown patrols
And spoiled in poorly kept silos instead
Teachers stayed up till sehri time
To watch Zoom tutorials
Hours of staring at a screen
Gave them headaches
Even Vicks Vaporub couldn’t relieve
The merry-go-round stood still
The candy floss pole disappeared
The fairground gathered windfalls
“Stay home, stay safe”
Cartoon Network’s new mantra
Sturdy hands massaged spatchcocks
With tandoori masala
Even though the virus
Was claiming lives
Naan and kebab had to be ready
For the iftar rush
Bright orange spirals
Sizzled in a cast iron wok
Fasting customers scrambled
For Hashem Mia’s famous jilapis
Social distancing floated away
In open sewers
The tailor’s shears sat idle
Threads unspent
Bobbins untouched
Who’s the culprit:
Covid-19 or Aarong?
The jhal muri wala gazed wistfully
At clouds above
The unusually quiet
Shapla Chattar roundabout
Business was bad
Stolen guavas sufficed
His starving family of five
An expectant mother exhausted
From sobbing all night
Blood trickled down her thigh
In the ambulance
She helplessly waited
For the inevitable
