Within Four Walls of the Mind  (English, Paperback, Smita Naik Salunke)

“Mamma, look what’s happening down there on the street!” Priaanshi exclaimed at 3 am in the morning. I ran along with her to the balcony of her bedroom. There was some commotion happening near a parked ambulance right across the road from our building. Three persons wearing PPE kits were trying to drag in a patient into the ambulance. Before I could try to make sense of what was happening, the ambulance doors shut, the driver stepped on the accelerator and whizzed past. It was as if death was lurking nearby and coming closer and closer. Was the virus spreading through the air? Would it kill all of us? The fear and panic was already causing palpitations. What would happen next? Would the virus ever go away? Will the world find a solution to bring an end to the spread of this nasty, mysterious microorganism? There were no answers to the constant questions that were bombarding every cell in my brain. Neither did I have an answer when Priaanshi asked me with tears in her eyes, “Ma, what’s exactly happening? What will happen to us? Will all of us die?”