Fascinating canvas with light paint and dark colors-
How dreamy it was,
Today this horrible scenario overwhelms me with intense poison,
Every day I wake up and sit up in bed in panic,
The emptiness of the limbs sure threw me into prison,
Lord forgive me,
Not darkness, make me face the sun. (Lord forgive me – H B Rita)
On March 8, I was walking like a normal day on one of the paths of the campus. Looking back, I saw the beautiful nature of the campus. How big the grass has become, how many flower petals have shrunk due to lack of water, how fishes were playing in the water of the lake, how many birds have come and gone in the crowd of innumerable line of tress, all in all there was no shortage in the day as passes. Suddenly, on hearing the news from a friend of mine, nature seemed to be plunged into black and white darkness. The widened horizon and the sky gradually narrowed. The blue color of the sky was lost in the crowd of black broken clouds. Although I was able to handle the crowd of black clouds, a terrible word entered my ears – ‘Two Corona patients have been identified in Bangladesh today.’
After hearing the news of the corona attack, I stayed at my favorite campus for a few more days. But suddenly one day I saw everyone running to his family to get rid of Corona’s panic. Following them, I also came back to my dear parents. Since then I have been spending my days in a small house. I have been under house arrest for more than three months now. I don’t know how long I will have to stay at home like this. As the day goes on, the life force seems to be fading. Today, the Corona virus is making people realize how the inmates of the prison spend their years in those small box enclosed in three walls. But we have a special resemblance to them in this captive state. Just as they are imprisoned for their evil deeds, so are the rewards of being imprisoned in our homes today for torturing the nature and the world. It is difficult to say when this long-standing anger, arrogance and resentment of world will end.
We have always made the world tired of water pollution, air pollution and various other pollutions. If the world had not been so cruelly oppressed, it might have suppressed his anger for a few more days. But the world today is tired, exhausted, upset by our relentless and uncompromising oppression. With the speed of the excellence of science we have become emotionless; we have wounded the world and made the world infected with a terrible disease. We did not stop in spite of creating the disease; we also increased the world’s temperature extensively. With the increased temperature the world today is infected with the corona virus. This terrible corona virus is hitting people’s thoughts, minds and ideas today. The eyes are reddened to show that the harmful aspect of today’s consciousness, ideas, knowledge, in return for which we have given the gift, the loss is only to the world.
While trials to create the corona vaccine are now confined to animals, the virus have wreaked havoc on the world by this time. Everything is gradually changing. Corona’s fear can be suppressed in the light of day, but the terrible darkness of night make Corona alive again whose fear hits our brain continuously. It does not calm down from being confined to the brain; it continues to spread from the throat to the heart. And from there it spreads to the whole vein. Whose fear tells me every moment will I be alive tomorrow? Even in the slightest danger, people would rush to save others. Today, the situation is such that their own relatives are leaving the victim helpless.
How beautiful the days were a few days ago! As the days progress, times are disappearing like a night dream in the silver rays of the morning sun. The days did not remain in my golden cage; it was my days of various colors. At some point in this day-and-night reunion, the golden times are crashing like the waves of the ocean into a corner of the chest, trying to break the prisoner’s chains in the wind, but an unknown fear stops me from physically going out the door. What a precious time in life to be lost in this terrible darkness of the corona virus. In this period of life, the golden times wounded by the virus will never be in our hands again. How much we have tortured this world. It endured all the oppression invisibly. This time it has woken up in the violence of revenge. The fear of who will die in this revenge of the world is constantly haunting. The virus is hurting people, revealing people’s helplessness towards nature.
The only prayer to the Creator is to end the waiting for the corona virus to be eradicated so that the afflicted body of the earth can be healed again with the vaccine, the fruit of the diligent efforts of the scientists. May the world return to its form, its beauty and develops in its glory. However, even in this terrible situation of the virus, those who are not to be forgot are the people — poor working class. The dynamics of our society depend on them as they are backbone of the country’s development. Their improvement means the improvement of the country. Without them, the nation will never be able to stand tall. In this epidemic they need a little sympathy and love from the government and the rich. The poet says-
‘Conquer the world with love,
Enemies become allies in the love of tears,
He is the best friend in the world.’ (Poem: The victory of love, Poet: Jotindra Mohan Bagchi)
Therefore, in this pandemic situation, let the government and the rich come forward extending the hand of love and sympathy for the welfare of the poor and needy by sacrificing self-interest and thinking of the betterment of the country and the nation.
(Makama Mahmud Chowdhury is a student of Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology).
