Chapter 28: chapter 28

This piece of information rendered me restless. My mind was not receptive to receiving another death news all of a sudden when I was already in a troubled state of mind. I indulgenced in excessive thinking about the cashier and his family, his little boy who studied in my school which didn't allow me to sleep the rest of the night. It was evident that I was trying to run away from the sad reality of life. The next morning, I retrospected for a while whether to consult the clerk for confirmation of the news. One part of my conscience added, "No! not at all. What will he think if the person concerned is alive? while the other part of my mind retorted," There is nothing wrong in confirming the truth. After all, we work in the same college and it is our duty to be informed about the well-being of one another." The weight of the generous conscience was more. It overshadowed all the awful thoughts and I decided to ring the clerk. The clerk was unaware of our state of affairs. He felt saddened when I revealed that my family had been a victim of the virus and my father-in-law lost his life fighting the virus. He was shocked and shared his part of the story. He said with great concern, "Madam, my family also got infected. There was a staff meeting in college. Many delegates appeared from remote Universities. After that, the entire office staff including the Principal and teachers got the infection due to a single infected person in the gathering. My, wife and my one-year-old baby were also not spared. We flew to our village to seek refuge from the virus as nobody is there to take care of us. We didn't tell the driver that all of us were positive otherwise we wouldn't have been able to reach our village. We depended on natural therapy for cures. The whopping cough of my little one persisted for a long. With proper supervision of my in-laws and homegrown fruits and vegetables, we gradually restored our health but it happened painfully with your family. Losing a loved one is compared nothing to what we had suffered." He became loquacious and continued further,"Even Satish sir and his family came under the inescapable clutches of the deadly virus. It had touched the lives of tmillions of families on Earth. The second wave was more dangerous than the first. I am feeling so weak to carry on with the routine life. It's good that we have been allowed work from home. They should have embarked on a shutdown well in advance."I was listening to him with great concern. I punctuated his talk with monologues like," Ok, so sad, exactly, absolutely while he talked incessantly. I forgot my question in due course of his chatter. When I realised I had to prepare breakfast for my family, suddenly I heard myself asking indirectly," Do you know anything about Satish Sir, how is he now?" I waited with bated breath for his answer. I desperately wanted him to answer my question. He remained silent for a while and spoke,"Satish sir suffered badly, his haemoglobin count was adversely affected, and being a sugar patient he had difficulty chewing his pills. His oxygen levels were uncontrollable. He was admitted to a government hospital far away in his home village. He had a very tough time. His wife and son are with him. Now he is alright. "I thought it wiser to conclude the conversation by bidding goodbye over the phone without much ado about anything.