Forcing myself to focus back on the road ahead in a literal and metaphorical way, I rev up my scooter and continue on with the journey.

Sreekariyam is an important junction. It is big. The whole stretch from Ulloor to Sreekariyam is a busy place. The roads would be full of vehicles going here and there and causing small traffic jams from time to time. The road width varies from place to place. As the road approaches any of the important junctions in this stretch, it narrows down to a normal single lane. These junctions are so dense the probability of them expanding to accommodate for the ever-increasing traffic is less. I can only imagine how these roads must have been big enough at one point in time. Now they are small. All because of the population explosion that took place in the last five to six decades.

Having stayed in Trivandrum a decade ago, I can vouch for it myself. The growth has been large. I don't think any city in the world is equipped to handle it. All of them are somehow able to accommodate all the changes occurring at a blazing pace and would run out of it at some point in the future.

As I ride on my scooter on these deserted roads, I wonder if Mother Nature had a hand to play in causing the phenomenon to occur. The images that come to my mind are that of the titan Gaia who is Mother Nature in greek mythology.

I remember seeing an animation of her talking to the protagonist of the video game I used to play. That image has stuck with me. Whenever someone talks of Mother Nature, this image automatically comes into my mind. In it, she is described as someone who is compassionate and benevolent. Or maybe not. Maybe I have that image imprinted on my head. With this image, I can't accept the thought of her scheming to bring about this phenomenon.

Humanity has indeed done a lot of harm to nature in the last century. It is increasing at an alarming rate. We don't seem to be slowing down. Leaders from all over the world are coming together to find a solution to this before it becomes too late. Global warming has taken up importance in round table conversations. Environmentalists have come to the front with their findings which needs to be addressed by us. Our belief that we are the children of this planet and everything in it is for us is wrong. We occupy only a tiny bit of the life of this planet. There are entities that have lived longer than us. We might not see them but that doesn’t imply they don't exist. They don't go about asserting their dominance. We did get a glimpse of how lethal they could be, and how easily they can bring down the pride we have in being the dominant species on the planet. It is the key takeaway from the Covid outbreak. That we are after all fragile creatures. We are here for a while. Whether our species will survive or not is a question I can't answer. I will surely not be there to witness it. Or is this it? Is this how it ends?

I don't think so. This must not be how it ends. How can it all come down to one person all of a sudden one fine day? It is not fair. It is not how our species should end. I think the dinosaurs had it better than this. They at least faced their extinction. They saw it coming and succumbed to it.

I think this is why I have this hope that whatever has happened is not a permanent thing. There must be something that has gone wrong, something which triggered this. This must be an event unasked for in the bigger scheme of things. Like someone pressing the delete button accidentally only to realize it at a later time and restoring it from the recycle bin.

There must be something I can do or figure out to negate it and bring it back to how it was. I want to undo the delete action that has caused this mess. Maybe it is not a mess for the one who accidentally did it. But then this is not how you go about annihilating a species from cosmic history. Bring in another meteorite, a flood, or an earthquake. Make it devastating, make it graphical, I am fine with it. At least I will have a chance to fight it and figure out a way to save her and myself. Here I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye or give her a kiss. This nags me from time to time. The feeling of having her robbed from me in an unexplainable and unplausible manner.

It is saddening to see all these shops closed. This is something you would expect to see on a harthal day. Even on Sundays, some of the shops would be open for business. Harthal is one such day that forces everyone to close their shops and sit at home. It is a big loss for these businesses. They are dependent on their day-to-day activities to earn a living. I guess somewhere down the line a hartal once in a while is actually welcomed by these shopkeepers. A day to shut down and take rest is essential in our fast-paced stressful lives.

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I am feeling a bit sad to see the shutters down. I feel for all the things that will stay inside them, without any purpose or use. The perishable stuff will give way in a couple of days. They will make their presence felt. The non-perishable ones would stay still in the racks and keep collecting dust over time. They would have forgotten their purpose.

Speaking of the perishable stuff, I am reminded of collecting them for my use. If I had taken the straight road at the junction from the way I came, I would have come across the local market. There all the vegetables, groceries, and household items along with fresh meat and fish get sold on a day-to-day basis. It will take time for the veggies to go stale and rot. The meat and fish would not survive that long. Once the ice starts to melt, the fish would be prone to going bad quickly. Chicken would still be hopping around in their cages, waiting to be fed or be fed. Beef would most probably have been sold out the previous day. The local markets have this advantage over the cold storage.

Anything that was frozen would have thawed by now. Supermarkets and departmental stores must be smelling foul. I would have to take precautions against this when I visit the supermarket between Sreekariyam and Pongumoodu. I should be collecting and storing away all the cold-cut meats. They are the best providers of protein. I will be needing them from time to time. I must therefore get as much of the remaining good stuff and store them in my fridge.

Oh, wait. My fridge will not work. Shit!

I need to figure out where to get a genset and hook it up and make it operational. Only a genset will be able to provide me with the power I need to run my fridge. I can look for a deep freezer, a small one. Then I would be able to store the cold cuts away for a while.

I take a deep breath to stop my train of thought. I do this because as these thoughts came to me one at a time I realized something. I am thinking on a very short-term basis.

I must have been thinking for like a week or two or maybe even a month tops when it came to collecting the cold cuts and stashing them. I really don't know why I am hoping that things will be solved in this time period. Maybe it might take years of research and exploring to figure out the answer. I should be thinking along those lines too.

I know I won’t be able to do that now. I still have a strong sense of finding out the answer in the quickest time possible. Over time it will dawn upon me. I hope it isn’t too late by then to make arrangements for the time ahead. I will somehow adapt to this and make it through. I know I can do it. But I also should be thinking more about the future from now onwards. I should at least plan for it on a daily basis from now on and act on it. If it means I need to collect as many deep freezers as I can and run them on multiple gensets continuously, I should be taking the first steps toward it.

I can't delay. The more I delay the more I lose. Foods can perish quickly. When it comes to food, I need to act in the coming few days. My only hope is since these shops were empty yesterday and had their powers running, the deep freezers and chillers must be chilled to the max. Since they were not opened, I presume their capacity to hold the chillness would be much better than when they are constantly opened and closed. I will get a better idea of it when I visit the supermarket later in the day.

The deep breath helped me regain my bearings and put me back on track. I had come to a stop at the bus stop while I was entertaining these thoughts. I resume my ride.

Suddenly I hear a lot of crows fly away with loud cawing. It catches my attention. I follow their trail for a while. It was good to hear them in the silence beyond the sound of my scooter engine. I am used to its sound. But I am also used to hearing all kinds of other sounds on my rides. In the very few early morning rides I have done, I still haven't had such silence prevail over me. There would be sounds emanating from everywhere These exclude the birds and insects. They are a part of the environment by default. I did hear crickets chirping and making their distinct shrill sound when I entered the marshy area.

A bunch of dogs starts barking out of the blue from the open compound I pass by. One of them gets out of it and chases behind me. I speed up my scooter in an instant and leave him behind. I can hear my increased heartbeat. I slow down gradually and calm myself. I wonder why the dog chased me.

I look at my watch. It is eight forty-two. I have to be back home. I need to be ready to be at Ulloor junction at ten. I might have to turn back soon enough. I haven't covered much distance after leaving home. It would have probably taken me half the time to get here if I was driving at my normal pace. But I am not. I am always on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary. I am scanning my surroundings as I pass them. I know it is not at all thorough. I can't go about looking in a detailed manner. That is not feasible.

The scale of the city and its area is so large it is impossible to explore every nook and corner of it in a lifetime. It is simply not possible. I can only skim through the surface and see if anything sticks. If not, I continue with my journey. This is the only way to go about it even if I have to go through this for a lifetime. There isn’t a better alternative to it. I don't think Will Smith would have explored every nook and corner of the city in I am Legend. I really don't think so. Trivandrum is not that big. Even if I manage to explore every part of it somehow, I would be just widening my horizon. There are cities, states, and countries beyond.

I am after all a tiny speck on this planet. I need to remind myself of this from time to time.