Manu is a 10-year-old boy, who has completed his 6th standard. He is energetic and enthusiastic. He was travelling to his grandmother’s place during his winter vacation. He was really excited as the Coronavirus meant that he was stuck in a single place for really long.
As his journey was about to begin the next morning, he and his mother started packing their clothes and other important things they would need during their journey, and at his grandmother’s home.
On the day of journey, they had to travel by an auto rickshaw and bus, to reach the railway station, because their house was located outside the city. As they arrived at the auto stand, Manu saw that five people were sitting in one auto.
He immediately asked his father about the situation, as he had heard a television advertisement about social distancing during the pandemic. His father replied saying that, “It will be like this only, son. We need to adjust and go on.”
Manu was really scared that no one in the auto was wearing their mask properly. Also, there was no sanitisation being done. Even at the traffic signals, no cop was stopping the auto and enforcing social distancing norms.
In this discomforting way, Manu reaches the bus stop from where he needs to catch a bus to go to the railway station. Manu was happy about getting out of the hellish auto and thought that the bus journey would be a relaxing one.
As the bus was relatively empty, everyone was maintaining social distancing norms. Manu felt so happy. But, as the time passed, people started coming in and the buses became overcrowded.
Again, he observed no masks and improper sanitation. This time, he didn’t ask his father anything because he will repeat the same answer. Time passed. The conductor’s mask reached his nose. He started counting the change by licking his fingertips.
Buses are given targets to get a certain amount of money per trip. They allow overcrowding of passengers to reach it. While getting down, he saw a poster saying: ‘NO MASK, NO ENTRY!‘.
After seeing this, he realised that real life is much different from what we may speak…
He was really happy to have reached the last leg of his journey. This time, another shock was ready for Manu. Due to reduction in the number of trains operating during the pandemic, there was a huge crowd in the train.
It was so crowded that Manu couldn’t even move his legs around. After some time, he observed things he thought were unimaginable during the pandemic.
He saw a person spitting in the train. He also saw a person with a lit cigarette in his mouth. Another person standing beside him was drinking something.
As time passed, he noticed that many did not have tickets. No TC (ticket collector) arrived till the end. Manu got frustrated with the whole situation and he was desperately waiting for his turn to get down.
Throughout his journey, Manu thought that ‘this is the way we all are forced to live here. It is common.’