I am about to reach the main intersection. It joins the main road that leads to the city. Along the way, there are a couple of schools. They have opened and have been functioning for the past couple of months. With the rise in cases following the third wave, there is a chance that they will be shut down. The officials have to make a decision on it.

This is the time when one gets to see students come to the school in autos, buses, or their own vehicles. There will be a small crowd around the gate. Today I see nothing of that sort. No cars or bikes or autos or minibus. The gate is closed too. It is not padlocked though. A couple of dogs are seen sleeping at the foot of the gate. Apart from that, there is nothing else here.

I slow down as I reach the intersection. There is no traffic. Nor are there any vehicles on the road. It is the same feeling one gets when one steps out into the roads on a hartal. This is very weird.

While I slowed down my scooter to check for the traffic, the scooter died out. It has a small problem with the slow speed or the base acceleration. I have been meaning to get it checked and get it repaired for quite some time now but my lethargy has successfully prevented it.

I take a look at my surroundings. There are absolutely no vehicles plying on the road. Nor is there any sign of them. A scooter is parked in front of the grocery shop. I was supposed to buy milk from there while returning. That is not happening now. It is closed. So are the adjacent shops and the ones beyond that. I look in front of me. The bakery and the other small shops are closed. On my left, the medical store is closed. At the opposite end of the main road, all the shops are closed. Every single shop is closed. There is no hint of its opening. There is no activity of any sort at all. This gave me a spooky chill. I don’t know what to make of it. At eight in the morning, the bare minimum activities that are visible in a place are absent. I start my scooter and enter the main road.

Three kilometers is all it takes from here to reach her department. I always prefer to drop her off with the scooter. I hate taking our car out. It just gets stuck in traffic. With a scooter, you can wriggle your way around and avoid stopping for a long.

Whenever I am at home she gets a bit late, which is more than enough to change the traffic. Every minute you are late the traffic increases. It might not be visible initially but as you enter the city limits and enter the premises of the medical college, the traffic makes itself known to you. Sometimes it even becomes frustrating to drive your scooter. We have had numerous experiences in which it has become a pain to navigate the packed road. No matter how smartly you drive, you are bound to come across some idiots on the road. While there is no way of avoiding them, one can only take a deep breath and be thankful that this is the least amount of stupidity one has seen for the day.

If she is running really late, I gladly hand over the keys to her. She is a kickass driver. I am more of the conservative kind. At first, I was a bit apprehensive to sit next to her when she drove. She has a racing spirit to her whenever she is on the wheels. She would cut corners smartly and exploit the small caveats in the traffic to the fullest. Soon enough I become very comfortable with it. I realized that this is her usual driving style and it would be better if I leave her to that. I gave her little advice from time to time but later on, I realized there was no need for it. She did point it out to me on a couple of occasions which I had casually dismissed.

Also, I love to sit behind her on the scooter. I would hug her and lean on her back. Sometimes I hug her and rub her belly. She smiles at me when I do this. Sometimes she questions me with a stern voice. I tell her to keep her eyes on the road and drive on. Some feelings cannot be recreated. They are to be lived and enjoyed at that moment.

I like to drive. I have been driving for a very long time. As much as I love to drive, I enjoy the pleasure that comes from being the one being driven. I use this to full effect. I love to observe my surroundings as we pass along the road. I can endlessly gaze out from my window and fall in love with the changing scenery. I love the wind in my hair although because of the perpetual heat throughout the year, one cannot drive without switching on the AC. The only respite comes in the wee hours of the day or at night. I roll down the window and soak it. Sometimes I put my hand out and enjoy the nice cool feeling it gives. As her pillion rider, I look around and try spotting new shops or anything of remote interest. When I see some interesting shop or restaurant or something of that sort, I announce it to her. She does ask me from time to time as to why I do it. I feel that they might come in useful someday, so it is better to know where they are and have at least a vague idea of where it is or what it is. I think she still doesn't get it. But yeah, that is something I do when I am traveling.

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I rev up. It is totally deserted. Fifty is the economical limit for the scooter. I drive at fifty. I always tend to economize certain things and mileage has been something I try to do. It has been like that since the time I started driving. It makes me shift gears and reach the top gear well within sixty and cruise in and around seventy on highways. It makes me hover the speedometer near the green upper limit set in the scooter. I know this wouldn’t allow me to reach my destination within time. Since time has become the new currency of sorts I dismiss this style when there is a deadline. Even if there isn’t one I would create one and would try to optimize it. But when you have empty roads and nothing to worry about and alone, I let myself fall prey to extending the mileage of the vehicle. She doesn't know of it. I don't think anyone knows about it. People might think that it is the way I drive but seldom do they know the reason behind it. I felt it to be more useful when time didn’t matter. But not now. Time does matter now. Every minute counts. I have realized it painfully.

Half a kilometer in, I come across a car that has smashed into the pole. A cloud of light white smoke is bellowing out from the bonnet. It is an old Maruti Alto. I stop and look at it. There aren’t any airbags. This one was manufactured before the airbag norms came into strict compliance. There is no one inside the car. I park my scooter and hop off. The driver's window is down. I take a peep inside. a purse lies near the gearbox console. Some loose coins too. A bag has fallen from the back seat to the flooring in front of it. The keys are still in the car, in the on position. I switch it off. I don't know why I did it. I just felt like doing it. Maybe it was instinctive. Switching off is one thing we have been told to do if something goes wrong or fails. I walk to the front and have a look at the bonnet. The car lies crashed onto a thick tree. The front is gone completely. The windshield is broken. The smoke still rises. I hope there are survivors. Without airbags, there shouldn’t be. But there wasn’t any trail of blood in the interior. It was clean that way. I give it one more glimpse and go back to the scooter. If there were survivors they would have been admitted right away to the Medical College. She wouldn’t know though. That's not her department. But if needed the information can be got. I dismiss the thought.

Before I start my scooter I take out my mobile and open WhatsApp. The first message hasn’t been delivered yet and the second one hasn’t even gone. Surely the servers must be down. Both my networks are still being shown on the screen. I dial her. Few seconds of silence and the call drops. Communication has gone for a toss it seems. Is this how the end of the world would be? If so then this is very shitty. This matters a lot now.

Two decades ago, maybe not. Now, when we are so dependent on the palm-sized gadget we have with us twenty-four-seven, it seems atrocious and unbelievable to be devoid of it in our last moments. I am frustrated once again. I was calm when I began the ride. The thought had entirely skipped my head and the empty road was very alluring. Now it has hit back and I feel agitated. I feel like throwing my mobile into the tarmac and seeing the glass shatter into a thousand pieces. But it wouldn’t solve my problem. Instead, it would only worsen it. I take a deep breath, calm myself a bit and stash away the phone in my pocket. The only sounds to be heard are the ones from the birds. They seem to have become more active for god knows what reason. A stray dog suddenly walks down from a nearby lane. It starts barking at me. I quickly start my scooter and throttle away.

I am starting to feel uneasy and concerned for Anna. I don't know what to make out of whatever I am seeing. A lack of seeing. Empty roads, shops shuttered shut, not a single human to be seen, I really don't know what to make of it.

A bike lies fallen on the sidewalk. It is as if the rider lost control and veered away. I slow down right next to it. No sign of blood or anything else. The keys are on the bike, just like how it was on the car. This seems very fishy now.

I lift my gaze and look into the distance. Another car lies haphazardly on the other side of the road. The lamp post on the divider is bent and the light is cracking. The light should have been off by now. It is lit on the other lamp posts that follow it. I seriously don't know what to make of it. I ride on, a bit slowly. I am trying to grasp my surroundings.

Am I in a dream? I don't think so. It seems very real. If I am then I hope I wake up quickly and get on with the day. If not then I don't know what to make of all this.

I am adjacent to the car now. The car is facing me. The hazard lights have gone off. The front lights are on. I can see the white airbags across the dash. Water is dropping from the radiator. I see no one in the car. I am in doubt as to whether I should go and check it out. But I feel scared. I suddenly feel like a fish out of water. I feel choked. I feel my pocket for my mobile in the hope that it might vibrate at this instant and give me an assurance that the network is back on. It stays still. A few more meters ahead the road will join with the state highway. From where I am now I can see nothing at all, save a bunch of cars that have crashed into something or the other. What is going on here? Lord help me figure out whatever is happening. Praying to the almighty, I start my scooter and resume my ride.