LOCKDOWN

One day you can see me washing cars, on other days as a waiter, construction worker, and roadside vendor. I am a Tamil migrant worker in Kerala. When lockdown was proclaimed, I didn’t have much supplies to survive for 21 days. I ran out of food within a few days. My neighbors avoided me, threatened me when I asked for food and asked me to evacuate. When I left, the police asked me to go back but I had nowhere else to go. That is when I decided to walk to Coimbatore. I avoided highways and walked through bypass roads and crossed the border with the help of my friends. But when I reached my village, the people treated me no different from my neighbor. I was shattered, where would I go now? I contacted the health department; they took me to the health center, quarantined me, and took proper care of me. They are the real heroes, neither superman nor ironman.

By : Swathi B. Suresh II B.A. Communicative English