Where the Pandemic Started

By Santosh Kalwar

This is the short story of a disaster that started as a minor problem, a problem that no one ever saw coming. Yet, in the arrogation of humanity, this petty minor issue was allowed to grow into something so big, something so terrible that now it remains a smudge in the history of humankind, unlike any other smear we have seen. It is a story of how different lives in one part of the world foresaw the beginnings of the Pandemic—Where the Pandemic Started. As ordinary life is strange, the unknown is good in a dark world that keeps on taking. Life does not want you to get out of hand, after all. Life wants you; no, life needs you to continue existing because if you don't, the world itself will collapse. And therein lies the question, have those that have suffered through learnt the lesson of their story? Or is it simply something that has been discarded as what they have to do and go through, cursing the gods or greater power as they are the ones that have made them go through all this? Whatever it may be, this story starts from a simple Fishmarket in Wuhan, China, where a worker pondered over his life and where the Pandemic begins but never ends.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781678008239

Book preview

Prologue

When life is born onto this planet, its purpose isn't defined, nor is it written. Some tales and myths say everyone comes into this world with a sense and their future set-in-stone. What is written in destiny must be followed, and eventually, it will catch up to life?

Destiny is not set in stone. Destiny is something that is never set in stone, for it is within one's own hands to make their destiny. Likewise, life is never set in stone. Each action that one takes, every single choice one makes, and every path one follows leads to a different end, and the ripples of this aftermath are felt throughout the world, affecting not only the one but also those in direct contact with the one. 

Life is never meant to follow a singular path. The best way to prove it will be to look at the predictions of life itself. Can you safely ever predict your own life or the road you follow? Can someone ever expect at what point of time they will face struggle or at what point they will be happy and at what point they will be sad? No, that isn't possible. They are barely on the crux of evolution, reaching a stage in life where things can go dreadfully wrong at the same time as things going dreadfully right. The choices one makes, the options one makes, and the ones one follows make life complete. 

But what exactly is living in a world where there is only struggle around the corner? What exactly is life when all you can look at are the negative variables that hang over you, baring down upon you with their presence and their terror? What exactly are the meaning of life and its purpose when all you can think of are the struggles up ahead? Nothing. It all amounts up to and sums up to nothing. It all means absolutely nothing. 

And in a world which seems to descend into despair and madness, in a world which appears to head down the tracks which end up literally in the smack-dab middle of nowhere, in a world which finally rises from the dark shadows that it has plunged into, no purpose of life can be the same. So, existence as a whole is divulged, and we start to question, "What exactly did we do wrong?"

Problems arise from the most ordinary of all circumstances, and in a world such as we live in, these problems are generally overlooked. Instead, these problems are considered necessary for the system to keep running, for what is wrong will continue to be wrong and support a more prominent cause that is also wrong. 

And then, when this problem becomes a disaster, everything shall fall apart. This is, unfortunately, the scenario in which the world lives in, and the world has lived in. It is almost laughable to ponder upon where it all started and nearly grim and shameful when we realise as humans that we were reckless, careless, and foolish. What should not have been done had been done, and what should have been spotted was missed entirely for selfish greed or suppressive need. 

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