"I want ketchup!"

Bittu frowned and banged both his hands on the gleaming white dining table. The table vibrated with his plate and the hot aloo paratha on it along with other items.

"Take this mango pickle Bittu. Ketchup is over! How many times shall I have to tell you?"

Anita scooped a spoonful of the pickle and tried to serve him on his plate when Bittu banged the table again.

"No pickle Mummy? Only ketchup!"

"Behave yourself Bittu!" shouted Anita dumping the pickleback into the bottle.

In the present situation, Bittu was not the only one who was the victim of Anita’s wrath. She looked with piercing eyes at Ashok who was sitting on the sofa engrossed in his sleek laptop typing away frantically oblivious of the surroundings.

"How many times did I tell you to bring ketchup?" Anita’s shrill voice was unable to break Ashok’s concentration.

"Did you hear what I said Ashok? Do you ever pay attention to what I say to you?", Anita was furious.

"It was not available", Ashok replied with his eyes glued to the screen and fingers typing nonstop.

" Didn’t you check the shop in the next street?"

Ashok looked up behind his gold-rimmed spectacles.

"Anita, it is a lockdown situation. There are large queues outside shops. I had to stand full one hour with my mask on and with fear inside my heart warning me repeatedly not to touch anything or stand even slightly close to any other person. It’s not possible to check multiple shops for your son’s ketchup in such conditions!"

Ashok’s voice was stern. He replied curtly and was back to his work.

Anita squinted her eyes which were already spewing fire.

" My son? Who can’t eat rotis without his Amma’s homemade ghee?? That’s the gene ‘my son’ inherited!"

The lockdown situation was not going in favor of this family for sure.

Just at this tense moment, the door flung open and a defaulter entered. A ball came rolling in making its way straight into Bittu’s room. No, the defaulter was not the ball.

" Please welcome the best football player in the town!"

Pinky entered the house in her jersey top and shorts striking a pose.

" Pinky you sneaked out to play football?", Ashok couldn’t believe his eyes.

"No, dad… Not what you are thinking…I was just on the terrace. Little bit kicking here and there… With two of my friends… That’s it."

" You are not supposed to do that Pinky! It’s risky!"

Pinky opened her shoes and entered the hall without replying.

" What is this behavior? You are not even supposed to go out of the house unless it’s an emergency"

Ashok was serious.

"Sorry daddy"

The sorry was blunt and lacked the required emotions. Pinky’s teenage mind these days seemed to revolt at each and everything said to her.

"Wash your hands! Full 20 seconds"

Anita ran after Pinky giving instructions as she closed shut the bathroom door on her face.

"I wonder whose gene is that…", Ashok murmured.

He picked up his laptop and got up from the sofa,

" Is it possible to ‘work from home’ from this ‘home’?"

"And what about my work? Does that matter at all? Do you have any idea how I’m managing work and home together these days? ", Anita snapped.

He walked to the bedroom without bothering to reply. Anita rushed after him with an ugly frown on her face ready for another argument and shut the door behind her. The fight that followed went on and on.

Bittu was left alone in the dining hall. He had kept nibbling on his aloo paratha while watching the drama unfold at his home and had almost completed it. He had started the fire with his ‘ketchup tantrum’ but was long forgotten as the drama proceeded. He was thankful that at least mummy had made his favorite food for dinner, with or without ketchup.

Now that nobody was around, his attention diverted to the television which was blaring in the living room. A reporter was quoting the jump in the number of coronavirus cases all over India. People were urged to stay home and not come out of their houses unless it was an emergency. Lots of discussions were going on. Bittu heard it intermittently. He was more interested in looking at the spherical green blob-like structure with blunt red spikes all over is shown on the television. Bittu found the image of the virus fascinating. To him, it looked like a planet revolving in the space like he had seen in the planetarium. But the difference was that this planet had spikes and the fact that it was termed ‘deadly’. He was tempted to change the channel to Cartoon network now that he got a ‘free’ remote which was a rare occurrence these days. But he didn’t. He continued watching the news for quite some time.

His reverie was broken by his mom entering the living room and switching off the television abruptly.

"No use hearing all this news on and on. It’s so upsetting."

"Bittu brush your teeth and go to bed. School is closed doesn’t mean that you disrupt your routine."

" Don’t know when life will be back to normal…. Till then I will go mad with all these people in the house 24/7…"

Anita went to the kitchen talking to herself.

Bittu did as he was told.

***********

He kept tossing and turning in the bed. Bittu tried all techniques like counting in reverse and breathing in a pattern but sleep was a distant dream. Mummy had made him sleep at the usual time without realizing the fact that he was less tired these days with school closed and nowhere to play. The room was filled with a light blue glow from the night lamp. Bittu lay on his back and stared at the revolving fan on the ceiling. The humming of the fan had a soothing effect on him.

He thought he heard something.

At first, he ignored thinking it might be the lizard making its typical ‘tik tik’ sound. He used to be afraid of it until dad showed him one day that it was a lizard and nothing scary. He closed his eyes.

It came again. No this was different. It was a very light sound that one would totally miss otherwise. Bittu felt uneasy. He slowly got up from his bed and looked around, not wanting the source of the sound to attract its attention towards him. His eyes darted across the place. Everything was as usual.

Then he spotted it.

A green bloblike structure with spikes was sitting on Pinky’s ball on the floor. It was a tiny structure with a halo around it. It was trying to balance itself on the ball and slipping over every time. Hence the sound.

It looked exactly like the virus Bittu had seen on TV. The only difference was this creature had eyes, mouth, nose, and two of the spikes were moving like his hands and the other two were his legs. It spotted him too.

"Hey hello there!" It squeaked.

Bittu jumped back on the bed and his heart started thumping in his chest all ready to explode. He clutched his superman pillow and hid behind it.

" Don’t be afraid child…well I know I’m scared but I can’t harm you from here anyway!"

Bittu peeped from behind his pillow shaking all over and asked

"Who are you… And why are you here in my room?" His throat felt dry.

The creature wrapped his tiny hands together and made itself comfortable on the ball.

"Your first question has offended me"

" The whole world knows me by now and you don’t? I’m upset with your general knowledge"

"And the answer to the second question", it said moving its hands.

" This ball rolled and went to the road…I guess a passerby sneezed…and I landed on it…something like that… I’m unable to track myself sometimes", it said apologetically.

Bittu eyed at it for a second and said,

" You are the… the…virus??"

The creature bowed and said,

"Yours truly…."

Bittu interrupted remembering the exact name,

"Coronavirus?"

The creature squinted it’s miniature eyes and said,

"Mr. C…."

"How about Mr. C? How does that sound? I like the ring of it.

"I’m literally sick of that name corona…"

"But you are right, I’m the same virus"

Bittu clutched his pillow tighter

"So, you are here to harm me…. Mr. C??"

"See that’s the thing…. I can’t harm you until and unless you yourself come to me or I’m carried in some way to you…it’s the good thing about me…. Although I have the reputation of being evil…"

He wiggled his minuscule fingers and explained,

"You are far away sitting on your bed and I’m on the floor on this ball… Can’t affect you boy… Just try to stay far from me and you can avoid seeing my evil side…. Social distancing, they say … All over social media…. Didn’t you see?"

Bittu let go of the pillow and relaxed a bit,

"Mummy doesn’t allow me much access to social media… She says I haven’t reached that age… I’m still ten"

"I’m Bittu by the way…"

Mr. C smiled,

"Nice name…"

"But this information is crucial… Even for a small boy like you"

"She had told me about this…"

"But she never told me that you can talk!"

"I’m a ‘novel’ virus you see… There are many things yet to be discovered about me… I’m brand new!", It giggled.

"Jokes apart… I don’t usually talk… My mantra is less talk more work! To be true I don’t know how I’m able to talk to you… Maybe I just like you"

Bittu was feeling more comfortable now.

"So Mr. C … now that you are here, I should tell you…. what you do is pure evil… People all over the world are suffering because of you"

Mr. C’s expressions grew grave,

"That’s my job boy… That’s what I’m meant to do!"

Bittu knitted his eyebrows and spoke,

"That’s no excuse! You’re killing people!"

Mr. C said in his defense,

"The tiger hunts! The deer are hunted… You don’t hate the tiger for hunting, do you?"

Bittu pointed a finger at him and said,

"A tiger hunts because it’s hungry… Not like you…. The hunger of your clan is insatiable"

Mr. C was in no mood to give up.

"And what about you humans? When will you get satisfied?"

"Means?", Bittu looked confused.

"Your race has been ruling the world for quite some time now. In the process, you have ruined it to the core and you don’t bother about it at all."

"You have exhausted all the resources of mother earth. Global warming, deforestation, pollution is the result of your doings, to name a few. I won’t bore you with the details. Your school books have all the information."

"Do one thing for me. Look at the sky from your window tomorrow morning… now that you can finally open it with pollution levels lower than ever before with all the humans locked in their houses"

Bittu had read about these terminologies but mostly treating them as study material for his exams. He had never pondered much on the seriousness of the topics.

Mr. C took a deep breath and continued, all the while relaxing on the surface of the ball.

"I’m godsend you know. Not for humans but for mother earth. With most of the humans caged in their homes, animals are free to roam about after eternity. The sky is a little clear, the water is cleaner, the air smells pure…."

"Mother earth is healing… She is healing big time! "

"I’m sorry Bittu… You might not be understanding the depth of my talks", Mr. C apologized.

Bittu straightened up himself and sat on the bed with more confidence than before.

"Children can understand more than all think they can Mr. C"

This time Mr. C gave a warm smile.

"I’m sure they can. I have a special liking for them. All underestimate children"

"Tell me one thing Bittu…"

"Aren’t you enjoying this family time suddenly coming out of the blue?"

Bittu thought for a while.

"I sure like that mummy is cooking all four times these days. Today she made my favorite aloo paratha. I never liked our cook Malti aunty’ s food much"

"I’m seeing daddy a lot these days. I love that so much. Earlier he was always in the office busy with work. He would return late at night when mostly I would be asleep."

"Pinky Didi also plays with me a lot now that she is prohibited from going out…. Well she breaks rules at times …and brings in uninvited guests"

Bittu smirked.

"There you go again Bittu… you really don’t like me at all… But all these good things in your life are also happening because of me… You can’t deny that!"

"Moreover, I’m not that great a killer… Many people are actually beating me successfully and coming out victorious!"

Bittu pointed a finger at Mr. C and said,

"You also can’t deny the fact that you are the cause of a pandemic which is destroying so many families!"

Mr. C didn’t reply for some time. Bittu kept staring at him sensing his upper hand in their argument.

Then he spoke,

"My time is limited Bittu…I mean I can’t survive for long on this ball…. But before I go, I just want to tell you something"

"Do you know what is the most important thing on this earth?"

Bittu didn’t reply. He waited for the answer.

"Balance"

"Balance is mandatory… not only in nature but in your lives too… if it’s disturbed again and again, then it can have dire consequences… no, the world won’t end so easily…but it will do the needful to restore the balance…"

"The way this balance was getting disturbed, all humans knew in their heart that something drastic was about to take place…nobody knew what… nobody knew when"

"And now that has happened…"

"In the form of your Mr. C. I’m the chosen one."

"I can only say that be careful now and also long after I’m gone… Or else…"

There was silence.

Bittu couldn’t see Mr. C on the ball. He went near the ball with utmost care but was unable to spot him. He looked around but Mr. C was nowhere to be found. Technically, a dangerous virus vanishing away on its own was a dream come true but Bittu hoped at least he could have said goodbye.

Nonetheless, their discussion was interesting. He had put forth some very good points in his defense.

*************

Bittu jumped and sat on the bed at the very first ring of the alarm clock. The first thing he did was to inspect every corner of his room. Next, he wore his gloves and picked up Pinky’s ball and walked straight to the sink. He kept scrubbing the ball with soap until it shone like new.

Pinky watched him in surprise with her toothbrush clinging to her mouth.

" Where is mummy? Where is daddy?", next he went shooting questions in the empty dining hall.

Daddy came out of his room all dressed up with his laptop bag and car keys.

"What’s the matter Bittu?"

At that very moment, Anita entered the house with a bag full of groceries.

" So much rush in the store my God… Bittu I got your ketchup!"

Bittu walked to her and said in a calm tone,

"Keep the bag on the floor, go wash your hands with soap… full 20 seconds… Don’t touch anybody or anything"

"Mummy… I don’t need ketchup risking the lives of my family… no need to cater to all my whims and fancies… I know you love me… And you work a lot to take care of this family and your office…", he reassured her.

Anita gaped at her little boy in surprise. So did the others.

"Daddy, nobody will disturb you in your work. I guarantee that. Please don’t go to the office. It’s risky. Work from home. From now onwards we will try to help each other as a family."

Bittu sounded so convincing that all Ashok could do was nod his head in affirmation.

"And Pinky Didi… Please behave like a true football player…. You can’t risk the lives of your team… Don’t go out… You can play in my room if you want…I will move the things for you… "

"Today, looking at the situation in the world, we might get wiped out any day if we don’t behave in a mature way. Let’s help each other and maintain the ‘balance’…"

"Err…ok.", Pinky said.

All wondered what changed Bittu overnight. Only Bittu knew.

He went to the window and sniffed the air… It smelled like green grass and wet sand… He stood there hearing the nonstop chirping of birds… He had never heard them before like that….

- Neepomanjaree Mahanti