From an anthology on loneliness: A couple waits out a violent night of blackout in silence

The city was silent. Closed shops stayed desolate. Crossroads stood speechless. The buses that crawled along did not feel like buses at all; rather, they felt as if darkness had been fitted with wheels. For the first time, people sitting next to each other on the bus were not taking advantage of the cover of darkness.

When he got off the bus at Karol Bagh, he was unable to recognise his colony. The incessantly chirpy Ajmal Khan Road was cowering. Never before had the blue streak of Belga’s lights stopped. Prahlad Market stood in attention. Even if a passing vehicle turned on its lights for an instant, the light would flare up and be switched off immediately. People alighting from buses were heading straight for their homes, without greeting acquaintances. While on the bus, something had certainly been weighing Kapoor down. Several thoughts swirled in his mind all at once. First, what will happen to his parents living in Ambala city in Punjab? What will he do in the evenings now? The bus conductor issuing tickets in the darkness seemed like the epitome of innate faith in humanity. Not once did he count or even look at the change he was...

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