സേക്രഡ്ഹാർട്ട് ഗേൾസ്. എച്ച് .എസ്.തലശ്ശേരി/അക്ഷരവൃക്ഷം/ The monster in town

The golden rays of a beautiful Indian morning spread down the small but cozy rabbit hole and young Richie was slowly waking up. He soon realized that it was awfully silent for a normal day at the suburbs. Usually he would have woken up by the buzzing busy town nearby and he had already become used to the heavily polluted air. Today was different however, no noisy vehicles or smoke from the traffic to cause him discomfort. He jumped off from his bed and poked his head out of his hole to see what had happened to the world around him. He knew that even the Sundays were far too noisy and it was Tuesday today. To his surprise there were no humans around. The crowded city nearby was completely devoid of people and all the shops around were closed shut. Young Richie was not particularly fond of humans as he knew that humans gave little to no care for the woods and the scrubs around which was his home. Once in a while some vehicles would pass near his borrow leaving the entire area in smoke as if there have been a fire. The honking of this vehicles were also terrible for his sensitive ears and crossing the highway for collecting food was too scary for the young hare. He had seen before what these high speed vehicles can do to small defenseless animals like him. Slowly he gained the courage to venture into the human territory. Out of curiosity he had to know what happened to all the humans around. He looked on both sides of the road, in fear of being an unfortunate road kill. There were not a single vehicle in sight and so young Richie hopped across the road to the bazaar nearby. He remembered one time when he lost his way home amid the crowd of the bazaar on a busy day. The sound of bargaining women and shouting shopkeepers were a nightmare for him. He was nearly killed by a shopkeeper who caught him eating his carrots. Poor Richie at the time didn"t knew those carrots were only meant for humans who had money to pay for them. As he walked through the bazaar he found that only a few shops were open and only a handful of people were around shopping. The liquor shop which used to have the largest human gathering was closed with no one around it. He knew that something was weird around for the whole city to change this much. Whatever the reason maybe, it was for the good of Richie and his friends who had lived in fear of humans and machines. He watched around and breathed in the fresh and unpolluted air for the first time. If only this situation had lasted, thought the young Hare. As he explored the city he came across a lot of humans who were mentioning the same word „Corona‟. He saw fear in their eyes when they were talking about this thing. Before he had seen humans quarrel many times over the irrelevant things but now for some reasons humans were united in their fear of this „Corona‟. What could be that dangerous to scare humans? – wondered Richie. In his mind he could imagine a beast with huge fangs and claws, big enough to scare any human. The thought had send shivers down his spine. Richie soon started fearing the same and was thinking of running back to the safety of his hole. „Corona‟ the monster that terrorizes even humans. On his way back every man, women and child he was were uttering the same thing as if the monster was lurking near them. Just when Richie started panicking he saw a young boy with masks on his face in front of a vegetable shop. He had almost done shopping and was about to head home when the boy saw the small hare in the middle of the road. Before Richie could react, the boy came running to him. Fearing the worst Richie froze however the boy didn‟t try to catch or hurt him, instead offered him a big carrot from his bag. The young Hare was surprised but cautiously took the carrot from the boy‟s hand. While Richie started munching on the juicy carrot the boy started speaking to him. “I wish I was a bunny like you.” said the boy. “My mom says Corona doesn‟t infect bunnies so you are safe little friend. The Corona Virus has killed hundreds of us and it could affect me or my family anytime. Pray for us little guy. Oh! I am already late. My mom will be worried sick. See you…” Richie, still holding the carrot was shocked to hear what the innocent boy had just told. The „Corona‟ he thought to be a big scary monster hunting humans was in fact a tiny little virus. Humans to him were big, strong and very resourceful. They are top on the food chain and dominated the entire earth. Still their greatest fear was not from any monster but from a minute virus which could hardly be called a living being. It was hard to believe but true. With the thought still in his head Richie went home. The world is surely less polluted from human wastes, noise and smoke but there are many innocent good people who deserve to live happily here. By Anugraha Shyam Kumar