Impending War
Of helplessness and Bollywood
Cooking gas is in short supply. Induction stoves are out of stock. Young adults are harking back to the “good old days” of wood fires they saw in their history textbooks. Deforestation might be our only option, we say, as we look out hungrily at the trees in our university.
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On our flat’s shared terrace, my neighbour and I look up at passing planes flying low overhead and make missile jokes. We feel the world is about to end as we know it, and stupid humour is the only thing we can use right now as ammunition or armour or even just a shelter.
We make plans to boil vegetables and eggs in an electric kettle. Then we come to the topic of possible power cuts….and our power to think of solutions switches off too.
We have experienced power cuts long ago, when we were very little. We have vague memories of hating it because of the heat and the boredom. We stop thinking about it and move on to our favourite topic: Bollywood songs.
Sheila ki Jawani persists, unyielding, even in the face of war.
