the names and phone numbers of every person along with what they’ve bought. I hope that you’ll be okay with that.’
She nodded. I felt bad telling her that things would be back to normal so easily when I had no real idea of when that would happen, but if sharing a little hope made it smoother for all of us, then I was comfortable saying it. The group came in and fanned out, picking up things they needed and stuffing them into their backpacks and into the buckets and boxes. I tried telling a few of them to focus on packaged and canned food, but after a while I gave up. Old habits die hard and I saw several of them pick up bread and fruit which would spoil easily. I asked Pandey and Nitish to focus on getting water since people seemed to be forgetting that drinking water would become a problem faster than lack of food. People could live on cookies for days. It would not be a fun diet but would keep them alive, but even a couple of days without water would be impossible. We lugged cartons of bottled water and put them in the buckets and boxes. The lady at the counter came up to me when we were finished.
‘Is it okay if I come with you? I don’t know how long I can stay here alone.’
The people around looked at me, wondering if we should bring in a stranger when we were worried about our own stores of food and water. But then the lady, Rani, was carrying something that made her invaluable.
She had the keys to the store.
We made the journey back as the sun was setting and I could almost feel the hundreds of eyes boring into our backs as we passed the many societies on the way home. The word had clearly got around that we had made a trip to Haiko and stocked up on supplies, and the occasional angry shout we attracted told me that others were coming to the same conclusion we had earlier in the evening. There was a high likelihood that we would be stuck in this situation for some time yet, and we needed to be prepared.
We were welcomed like conquering heroes and any doubts people had about the newcomer we had brought along disappeared when they realized who Rani was and the fact that she held the key to the supermarket. Mr Guha produced a bottle of Scotch and opened it.
‘Come on, let’s have a toast.’
A few more people chipped in with beer and I realized that some people had used the trip to Haiko to stock up on alcohol. The mood was more upbeat than it had been at any time during the day, but I didn’t take a sip of alcohol. Night was falling, and god only knew what it would bring.
F OUR
There was something about the night that made it darker and more ominous than just the absence of lights around us. There was the silence, there was what I had seen at R City and the police station, and then there was the fear of the unknown. Many of us had lived in this neighbourhood for years, and would often talk about how safe an area this was, how you could walk home late at night without any fear. Now, we were not sure we could move beyond the building gates. Everybody was on edge, but it hardly helped our cause to have people panicking.
Sitting with Pandey near the gate, I could see many people huddled at their windows, looking outside. Only a handful of the neighbouring buildings had their lights on, and I suspected they felt the way we did, since I caught glimpses of people silhouetted by the lights, standing at their windows, perhaps looking at us much as we were looking at them. It felt like we were marooned in a sea of blackness, looking out at others like us, clinging on to the supposed safety that the lifeboats that were our buildings provided.
It was now nine at night, hardly late by normal standards, but then things could hardly be called normal. I kept staring into the distance, half-remembered training coming back, old instincts kicking in, and barked commands of troop leaders as we exercised in the NCC ringing in my ears again.
‘Dogwatch.’
Pandey looked at me and smiled and then he got up, stood
She nodded. I felt bad telling her that things would be back to normal so easily when I had no real idea of when that would happen, but if sharing a little hope made it smoother for all of us, then I was comfortable saying it. The group came in and fanned out, picking up things they needed and stuffing them into their backpacks and into the buckets and boxes. I tried telling a few of them to focus on packaged and canned food, but after a while I gave up. Old habits die hard and I saw several of them pick up bread and fruit which would spoil easily. I asked Pandey and Nitish to focus on getting water since people seemed to be forgetting that drinking water would become a problem faster than lack of food. People could live on cookies for days. It would not be a fun diet but would keep them alive, but even a couple of days without water would be impossible. We lugged cartons of bottled water and put them in the buckets and boxes. The lady at the counter came up to me when we were finished.
‘Is it okay if I come with you? I don’t know how long I can stay here alone.’
The people around looked at me, wondering if we should bring in a stranger when we were worried about our own stores of food and water. But then the lady, Rani, was carrying something that made her invaluable.
She had the keys to the store.
We made the journey back as the sun was setting and I could almost feel the hundreds of eyes boring into our backs as we passed the many societies on the way home. The word had clearly got around that we had made a trip to Haiko and stocked up on supplies, and the occasional angry shout we attracted told me that others were coming to the same conclusion we had earlier in the evening. There was a high likelihood that we would be stuck in this situation for some time yet, and we needed to be prepared.
We were welcomed like conquering heroes and any doubts people had about the newcomer we had brought along disappeared when they realized who Rani was and the fact that she held the key to the supermarket. Mr Guha produced a bottle of Scotch and opened it.
‘Come on, let’s have a toast.’
A few more people chipped in with beer and I realized that some people had used the trip to Haiko to stock up on alcohol. The mood was more upbeat than it had been at any time during the day, but I didn’t take a sip of alcohol. Night was falling, and god only knew what it would bring.
F OUR
There was something about the night that made it darker and more ominous than just the absence of lights around us. There was the silence, there was what I had seen at R City and the police station, and then there was the fear of the unknown. Many of us had lived in this neighbourhood for years, and would often talk about how safe an area this was, how you could walk home late at night without any fear. Now, we were not sure we could move beyond the building gates. Everybody was on edge, but it hardly helped our cause to have people panicking.
Sitting with Pandey near the gate, I could see many people huddled at their windows, looking outside. Only a handful of the neighbouring buildings had their lights on, and I suspected they felt the way we did, since I caught glimpses of people silhouetted by the lights, standing at their windows, perhaps looking at us much as we were looking at them. It felt like we were marooned in a sea of blackness, looking out at others like us, clinging on to the supposed safety that the lifeboats that were our buildings provided.
It was now nine at night, hardly late by normal standards, but then things could hardly be called normal. I kept staring into the distance, half-remembered training coming back, old instincts kicking in, and barked commands of troop leaders as we exercised in the NCC ringing in my ears again.
‘Dogwatch.’
Pandey looked at me and smiled and then he got up, stood
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