At three noon, Pattom Junction looks alien to me. I am getting used to this feeling. The road to the left takes you to Kuruvankonam and Kowdiar. I stayed half a kilometer from here. Residential colonies branch out from the road. Apartments are coming up thick and thin. The area houses the upper middle class. Recently this stretch of road has seen a lot of cafes and restaurants opening up.

The stretch ending at Kowdiar Junction has seen a change. A bakery that was synonymous with the city and its citizens moved its outlet. I noticed this the first time I took this road after moving into the city with her. It was kind of a landmark. On seeing the familiar name board replaced, I was stunned. I asked a couple of my local friends about this. They confirmed it. They had moved to another location. They were expanding. Now they had multiple shops in the city. I liked the fact that they were growing their business. But I felt sad knowing they had moved their original outlet.

The road to the right leads to Medical College. This is the main road leading to the hospital. The road that lies between Kesavadasapuram and Pattom stretch came later. There is a renowned private hospital along the way. One of my best friends stays opposite it. He lives with his wife and daughter in his newly constructed house. I have been their plenty of times. I haven’t taken her though. His wife keeps telling me to bring her for dinner. I say I will but something or the other creeps up and stalls it. He is currently at his worksite in another part of the country. His wife and daughter have a helper staying with them. I wonder about them. I have time. I take the right turn.

I find a car crashed into a couple of rickshaws on my left as I take the turn. There is a govt hospital here. The hospital complex lies a bit inside. I have wanted to see how it looks cause the main building is built on a small hillock.

On the right, there is the police office and their cyber cell wing. A few meters ahead is the electricity board office. Then comes a school in which one of my best friends studied. He lives in Norway. I think I have already introduced him. I hope he is fine there.

I have some friends abroad. By friends I mean people I can call and crash with if ever the need arises. Most of them are in Germany. I hope they are all good. I can’t help thinking that this is a global phenomenon. I don't know how only the population of a city can disappear all of a sudden. It cannot be localized. How does one determine the boundaries for the phenomenon in this case? There aren’t any well-defined ones between states or countries. Since I can’t gather any information, I can’t say what is going on in the rest of the world. Networks are down and they sure seem to remain so. I haven’t had any response on my walkie-talkie yet. There isn’t the slightest human movement anywhere.

I reach a junction and continue on the main road. I reach the by-lane that leads to his house. But I can’t go in. The road has been cracked open for laying sewage and water pipes. A JCB lies right in the middle of it. I park on the roadside and get out. It is a few meter's walk to his house. I reach the gate and open it. No sounds are coming from inside. I pass the kitchen as I walk to the front door. The window is shut. Normally his wife sees me coming and greets me first. I ring the calling bell and wait for a while. There is no response.

His daughter is very active. Once when I came to meet him, she was watching her favorite cartoon video on youtube. She greeted me and got back to it. We were chatting away when I noticed her actions. She was acting out what was being shown in the video as faithfully as she can. I was fascinated. I stopped my conversation and got to observe her. He told me she had memorized all her favorite songs and loved to act them out whenever it was played. The song lasted a hefty fifteen minutes. She was showing no signs of slowing down. In the video when the character took a bunny and hugged him, she took her doll and hugged her. She was using similar toys to recreate what was being shown in the video. I gave her a big round of applause when she was finished. She smiled at me and ran towards her mother.

I ring the bell a couple more times. When I get no response, I walk around the house. The windows are all closed. I can’t make out much from it. I leave with the obvious conclusion.

Walking back I wonder if my friend and his family are alive. I have no way of contacting either one of them. I feel a bit sad and worried.

I think of how I can bring back the network as I exit the place. I take out my phone and have a look at it. The primary sim has stopped showing the network. The secondary one is still showing. I try dialing his number. It is the same old story. I don't know what to do in order to restore the service. Since it is showing the network, it means that the towers are working. Signals are being sent and received. But only to the tower. Maybe not beyond it. Or to the central hub. I really don't know how this technology works. I wish I knew, cause then this would have made some sense.

I walk back to the road, get back on my scooter, and turn back the way I came. I pass the few cars that have crashed along the road and reach Pattom Junction in a jiffy. I take the right turn towards the city. The road is slightly downhill. I see a jeep rammed into the railing of the pavement right where it began. The wheel remains in a turned position indicating that the vehicle was probably coming from the road I had taken. A couple of meters ahead, on the opposite side of the road an auto rickshaw has toppled. I can see its underbelly. Apart from that everything looks fine. I drive at a normal speed.

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The starting of the straight stretch after the decline has a horrendous crash. A sedan has rammed into the railing, climbed on the pavement, and crashed onto the wall. The impact must have been tremendous cause the portion of the wall it hit had fallen on top of it. The front has gone through the wall. I stop to have a look at it. The windshield has broken and come down on the front seats. The front portion of the car is totally damaged. It is what you call a total loss. I think the engine must have been damaged and dislodged from its position. It is an old vehicle. It must have been cruising at high speed. The wheel cups have been dislodged. The front axle has been damaged with the tire hanging onto it in a disfigured manner.

I get back on the road when I hear a sudden crackle from the walkie-talkie. I stop at once and take it out from the side pocket of the bag. I wait eagerly. Nothing happens. I click some of the side buttons. It gave out small beeps and buzzes. I can hear them when I press them. I don't know if it gets transmitted. I really don't know its purpose. So I stop clicking them and wait. There is no response. I press the big button and call out into it:

‘Hello, hello. Can anybody hear me? Hello. Anybody? Anywhere?’

I repeat it a few more times. There isn’t any response.

Arrrghhhh! This is so irritating. Why can’t it just come alive? Why can’t somebody respond to these goddamn messages? This is not how it should be. By this time someone in the city must have used their brains to find out a way to communicate. Someone should be alive and thinking of finding a way to communicate. Oh, God. I feel so stupid. I feel stupid and irritated. I almost feel like throwing the walkie-talkie into the ground and seeing it smash. I am losing control.

My heart starts to race. I know I am enraged at the helpless situation I am in. I am doing my best to figure out the answers. God, I wish I get a sign. Any kind. A sign that gives me hope to go forward.

I take deep breaths and calm myself. There is no point in remaining enraged. It clouds my judgment. I have experienced it a lot of times. I agree with the Stoics on this matter. Deep breathing is something I actively do if I get irritated. I feel my heart slowing down.

Once I am calm and composed, I wonder what that crackle was. Maybe a slight disturbance in the atmosphere? Or some kind of interference? I want to explore the interference possibility.

I get out of the scooter and walk around my immediate vicinity with the walkie-talkie held high. It is blank. Next, I circle the few meters I covered from the crash site. I don't get anything on it. I go a bit ahead. It gives me the same result. I wonder if I had imagined it. Is my brain playing games with me? Or have I started to lose it? I shove the walkie-talkie to where it belonged and decide to continue ahead.

I reach Plamoodu junction within seconds. The road ahead splits into two one-ways only to re-join some distance ahead. Right at the splitting of the two roads in between them lies a bakery. I have fond memories of it.

When my family moved to Trivandrum after I finished college, I was on the lookout for good bakeries. We had moved from Kochi. We had been living there for twelve years. I associate myself with Kochi cause that is where I spent my teenage years. There is a strong emotional connection to it that can’t be severed. Over time the attachment has come down. I am not able to go and visit my friends as much as I like. Also, the city was developing at a hefty pace. Every time I went, the city had transformed. New development plans and schemes were being approved and implemented at great speeds. Kochi has burst into the global tourism scene with the Muziris Biennale and the solid promotion by state tourism.

I had my favorite bakeries in the city. They were consistent and never disappointed me. I introduced them to a few of my friends. They became their instant fans. I was trying to find such a bakery here in Trivandrum.

I decided to check it out when I was returning from dropping my mother in her office. It is a quaint bakery. Whenever I enter a bakery I check out its pastry section first. It gives me an impression of how things would be. I came across a strawberry pastry that attracted me with its simplicity and price. I bought it along with cream buns and some milk sweets.

I went home with the thought of keeping it away till my mom and brother returned in the evening. But I caved into the prospect of having the pastry. I opened it and took a spoonful. Oh my, it was delicious. I was really surprised at how it had turned out for the price point at which it was being sold. I couldn’t stop myself from eating it. I finished it within minutes. Luckily I bought two of them. I closed the box and hurried into the kitchen to store it away in the fridge.

I became a regular customer whenever I went to drop my mom off. The strawberry pastry was bought whenever it was available without fail. I tried the others one at a time. They were all really good. Nothing disappointed me. Sometimes when I was called to pick up my mom, we stopped here to buy some snacks. Their meat puffs and chicken rolls were nice. We tried their cakes. They were really good too. We bought them and shared them with our relatives back in our hometown. They loved it. One of my cousins urged me to take him to the bakery when he visited us here.

The bakery has grown in the six years I was away. Whenever I pass it now, I am reminded of the strawberry pastry. I did visit it a few months ago but I couldn’t find the pastry. I left without buying anything. I felt like it had changed. There was nothing that excited me now.

I wish I could have that strawberry pastry right now. I could use some comfort food. Desserts to be precise. The shutters are closed. The sign board is still alight.