Page 86 - Musings 2021

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Diary Entry: 21/09/2025
Aayush Atul Verma
2017A7PS0061P

I remember that morning. The morning the news came on the television, alerting everyone
that there was a nationwide lockdown. Being the crazy survivalists that they are, my parents
had a bunker built into our basement in case such a precarious situation was ever to arise. The
moment that the news came, Tia, Joanna, Louise, and I were shooed into that bunker. At the
time, none of us knew how long we’d be in there. Today marks five years since we went
inside the bunker, and it’s finally time to step into the outside world. I feel nervous and
excited and flushed all at once. There are tiny beads of sweat forming on my forehead - that
is how nerve-wracking this is. I have not interacted face to face with anyone other than my
siblings and parents for the last five years, and I’m quite worried about how I will socialise.
My dad is making blueberry pancakes, and the aroma is filling this bunker. My mom is
setting the table, and Tia, Joanna, and Louise are being noisy as usual. They’ve started their
typical morning shouting, ‘Martin, come for breakfast.” Guess I better go; otherwise they’re
going to make my eardrums burst.

The pancakes were delicious, as always. But I could not concentrate on those amazing

pancakes because I was stepping out today! I am going to meet my friends from school, I
can’t wait. I wonder how different life out there is now, compared to five years ago when we
came in. Oh man, Dad’s calling me.
It’s TIME! Finally!
I will be back with the tales of my adventures tomorrow!
Diary Entry: 22/09/2025
WOW.
Yesterday was something. Once we stepped out of that bunker, it felt like we were breathing a
different kind of oxygen - it was different from what we had gotten accustomed to, but it had
a vague sense of familiarity. The first thing I did was run up to my room. Seeing my room
made me weirdly nostalgic. I remembered waking up in my room five years ago and not
realising how drastically everything was going to change. From down the hall, I heard the
girls’ shrieks of excitement as they ran up to their rooms, and Mom and Dad exclaiming with
joy as they opened the door to their bedroom. We then ran down to the kitchen, only to open
the fridge to a nasty smell of expired food. We quickly threw everything out and made an
extensive list to buy all the treats we’d been craving. Mom told me to go to Target and get
everything, and I don’t think I have ever been that happy to run an errand!

I strapped on Dad’s dusty old sneakers (cause my sneakers from five years ago didn’t fit me
anymore), and I opened the front door and then it struck me. The pre-coronavirus world was
no more. As I saw people walking down the street, I was shocked. The outside world that I
remembered was nothing like this. Everyone was wearing a lab coat-like garment, and their
faces were masked by self-contained breathing apparatus kits, like what firefighters used. I
felt odd without one. All I had with me was a surgical mask, so I put that on and started
making my way down the street. As I was walking, I was amazed at how much everything

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