Echoes of Despair

 ECHOES OF DESPAIR 

Foreword 

The news of the COVID-19 pandemic was trickling into the country. The rumours of the pandemic emerging from the wet market in Wuhan were in the headlines. In India, the virus was spreading languidly, and the government machinery was beginning to wake up as the infection numbers crossed one thousand. When the numbers breached fifteen hundred, the Prime Minister panicked, and without due consultation and consensus of the health ministry, public health experts, and the state governments, decided to close down the nation in four hours of notice on 20 March, 2020. The summer had started to set in the eastern states and was spreading into the central and northern regions of India and so was the virus.

Scorching heat, relentless and bold, 

High humidity, suffocating, and untold

Sultry air clings, heavy with dread

Ambulances wail, rushing ahead. 

Patients gasp, struggle for breath,

Doctors fight, amid shadows of death 

Brave nurses, their compassion unyielding 

Attendants stand, their resolve revealing. 

Cylinders hiss, a lifeline in demand

Ventilators hum, in a desperate stand

Desperation looms, a silent outcry

Deaths tally rise under a bleak sky. 

Bodies lay in silent repose

Funerals are somber, where sorrow flows

Flames flicker, consuming the night

Smoke rises, a grim sight. 

The stench of grief permeates the air

Wails of anguish, a solemn prayer

Sobs echo through the night 

Coronavirus, relentless in its might.