There is no escape. None. Not from me. I am Karuna, Karuna, the Virus. There is no running away from me. I’ll get you. You shall have to seek Karuna, and Karuna alone can save you. What did they say in the movie you never stop to rave about? What was it about that man who was at the centre of it? Haan. Gabbar ke taap se tumko sirf ek aadmi bachaa saktaa hai, khud Gabbar. I am that. Renamed. Karuna. Seek me out. Pray. Piss. Prostrate. Enact this or that or all acts of pusillanimity. Maybe you have a chance. Maybe you will earn a bit of Karuna. Karuna is an essential virus. No Karuna, no you. Kaput. So seek it. Remember those who did not. Or would not be bothered. Remember Justice Khoya. You lost him; kho diya. Remember, ah well, the list is too long and this place too short, a column on a single page in a single newspaper. Never mind.

Ask for Karuna and you shall find it. Don’t ask for Karuna and it shall find you. Can’t you see? All across you? Karuna. Karuna. Karuna. The spiking numbers, the plunging lives. The fear, blotting this planet like darkness, people fleeing from it and getting consumed. The darkness taking them and turning them into darkness, into itself. When you are taken by darkness you become so dark you are no longer visible. Please listen to me while there is still time. Please ask for Karuna. Pray for it. Plead for it. Prostrate for it. Say please. Please, please grant me Karuna.

You will come to this. To this stage and station where that’s the only thing you’ll cry out for: Karuna. It is what will save you and deliver you from the miseries of living, of all misery. You do understand life, do you not? Perhaps you do not. Buddha did. But you cannot be Buddha. Nobody after Buddha has been able to be Buddha. That is one of the reasons Buddha has remained Buddha. He had understood. He had understood things you would not understand.

That is why you seek life and love life and seek longevity. You breathe. You breathe excessively. You break your sleep, that singular gift, and you start heaving like BabaKaamdev. Or you change and leave home and begin to run in the pre-dawn darkness. What from? Or you begin to twist and turn and contort a perfectly fine gift of nature which is your body and where your soul resides. What for? What would your souls think? Chhi-chhi, I am here and look at this person trying to squeeze me this way and that way. But then, who bothers about the soul these days? Soul? Sole. The ones shoes need. They are things. We can run on soles. Wake up and run. To save our lives. To run and run and reach where we may receive some Karuna, the virus of life. Lord, I have sinned, give me Karuna. I have looted banks, give me Karuna. I have raped, give me Karuna. I have wantonly burnt and maimed and killed, give me Karuna. I have preached violence, even against those I have killed, give me Karuna. I have cheated and I have robbed, give me Karuna. I have been fancifully derelict and demonstrably dire, give me Karuna. I have a stockpile of stuff to hide, illicit things, you know, cash things, flesh things, family things, blood things, bone things, grave things, many things, you are well aware what sorts of things, you know. You know things, you know all things, you know everything. Give me Karuna. Oh please. I pray. I plead. I prostrate. I need it. Without Karuna, there will be the treat of this life and having to live it. And you know how terrible that is, having to live this life, this sore of life, under the likes of you, SireOfAllThings, or, may I dare say, the DireOfAllThings. Grant me please my share of Karuna before you begin to pronounce another time.

We shall duly clap
And put this virus in a flap
So it falls into your trap
And again shall we duly clap.