I am a law-abiding citizen who recently ditched the habit of having a tea over the morning newspaper as I got more obsessed with long distance cycling during which I will get more time to think passionately and peacefully. I am also not much profound on the daily verbal exercise of our Chief Minister at 6 PM, first of all due to my low level of interest in all breeds of politicians but not in politics, and secondly due to the high level of aversion that had swelled in my mind due to the excessive exposure to the political debates happening in news channels on hourly basis. I never regretted on losing the said habits though that is a huge disqualification to continue as a Malayali, who boast to have the habits of interpreting minimum two newspapers on wake and getting hypnotized by Vinu V John, Arun(Motta), Sreekandan Nair, Ayyappadas, Shani, Smirti and numerous other anchor bolts of Kerala political landscape.
But I had paid the price for my precipitous ignorance as I missed to read the news on further restrictions imposed by Chief Minister last night, restricting the common man to go out for exercise in public areas. As warned by the Mr.Suresh, the gatekeeper of our apartment, I sported a second mask over my regular mask and started my day as usual, though it was very uncomfortable to breathe over the two layers, while exerting on cycle. I passed the main junctions, passing through many checking barriers installed by Kerala Police and rode up to International Airport by the wee hours of dawn. Suddenly a group of police officers jumped on to the road and stopped me for violating the lockdown norms and left me to repent on my hesitation to read newspapers before starting my cycling. I, as a common man, was called upon by a lady constable, who looks very stout and serious, masked up to her eyes, who incessantly interrogated me and sought explanations for riding the cycle through the roads of lockdown clamped city roads, as if I had murdered someone last night. I, for the first time in my life, felt really sorry for not being a politician and got envied on them for their unrestricted freedom and ridiculousness for conducting and staging huge rallies during elections, which resulted in the present spike, and tried to explain about my habit of cycling without pointing my fingers to any of the political leaders who violated the norms few days before. I, intentionally but hopelessly, had not taken any effort to remind them about the huge pile of politicians and their allies who masklessly went to pay homage to a political stalwart who is on his last journey to a maskless world. Not heeding to my explanations and by not lending an ear to my request, the police constable with very sharp eyes, started writing my address, which I prompted promptly. But when I spelled the name of our apartment “Cordon Sreevalsam”, she stopped abruptly and looked into my eyes, denoted with lot of passion and enquired “Are you staying in the same apartment of Mr. Ajoy Kumar!?”
When I nodded positively to that query, I instantaneously felt a change in her attitude, though I could not see her face which is cladded in double masks and found that her stiffness had melted down, and i got further astonished to see a smile on her face which I could read from her sparkling eyes, and had taken me by surprise when she completed the remaining formalities and let me continue with my hobby. The said lady officer, who melted down on hearing the said name, seems to be a devoted fan of Mr. Ajoykumar, who is a great writer with thousands of active and enthusiastic followers, especially in Facebook, and winner of many awards and accolades for his humorous and impeccably hilarious works. Though I may get a notice for violating the lockdown norms, I realized that, as in the tagline of the Skyline Builders “Address says it all”, the personalities who are staying there also gives you an address, which you can proudly assert in public.
BIJOY P PULIRA