Time will Come

(A Pandemic Song)

Time will come,

before we succumb to hopelessness

and we will be walking hand in hand

along the sidewalk of the busy streets

without mask on our faces,

going desultorily through the lanes

with our arms across each-other’s waists.

Time will come

when we will again step into a roadside eatery,

eat warm samosas or momos from one single plate,

and walking across the zebra-crossing,

we will assimilate like molecules

into the buzzing swirl of market place,

charged with more vibrancy

we will find our way through ever-swelling crowd,

get onto an over-crowded bus

or a fuming and spluttering Bikram Tempo

to reach some other part of the city.

[From a corner of our vocabulary 

the word 'Sanitizer' will have evaporated

without leaving even a faint trace of its odour.]  

Time will come

when we will find ourselves in a jam-packed stadium

watching a football match or a cricket match,

you cheering shrilly for one team

and I shouting support for the other.

As the final whistle goes or the last ball is bowled

we will have already been in high and low tide.

Or in an open space away from the stadium,

abandoning ourselves on the dusty ground like many others,

we will be enjoying the sleight of hands of a street musician.

Raising our fists high up 

in a surging and boiling protest rally

we will be shouting slogans thunderously.

  

Time will come

when we will be joining wedding parties

vigorously shaking hands and hugging each other.

Drawing aside from the assemblage,

some invitees in pairs will be whispering intimate words

inhaling each-other’s breath.

Time will come

when we will be gathering in the neighbourhood

where death has occurred,

paying the deceased our last respect,

bidding him / her a decent final farewell. 

And on the same day in the evening,

we will be in a birthday party

singing in chorus – Happy Birthday to you !

+

But for now 

let us just be virtually happy 

for our virtual meeting

that hangs in-between illusion and reality.  

And who knows

even the day we have been waiting for

may just be a virtual one?    

____________

July 12,  2020.