By the time the apocalypse began, the world was already
Finished. It ends every day for a century or two. It’s over, and another end
The world rotates in its place. It ended, and we woke up and ordered Greek coffee,
Hot liquid drawn through our teeth, as everywhere, the apocalyptic thunder,
Apocalypse remembered, our dear, dear Apocalypse—it’s swept away
Slowly from the trees around us, so loud we stopped hearing it.
-Frenie Choi in the World Keeps Ending and the World Goes On
The word came to us through images, tickers, stories. And Apocalypse Became a part of daily conversation over the past two years as a mystery virus ravaged our world. But the earth still kept rotating. We still ordered our coffees as the apocalypse rumbled, or showed their passive-aggressive silence outside our windows.
When the second wave of the pandemic hit India, and thousands died — many gasping for oxygen outside packed hospitals — every day was apocalyptic. The bodies were thrown into the rivers. The mounds on the banks of the Ganges, captured in drone photographs, looked like boils boiling on the face of the earth. Is the world going to end like this? The body is burning, rotting, swollen? Perhaps, the apocalypse was the death of all hope. Perhaps, this is a place of despair.
Read also: Song Sung Blue: The End As A New Beginning
Many predicted the end of many things. But we survived. We learned new ways to deal with a world that made us look at the fixtures on the windows, watching a world that is ending. Love is different now. Touch is a luxury. The boundaries have been strengthened. The rich are going to the moon.
The poor man walks thousands of kilometers to reach home on the broken earth, and nothing else.
Combined in this anniversary and year-end issue, Outlook sees a series of stories of hope, despair and redemption. We delve into this apocalyptic version of the new world with poetry, fiction and journalism.
And we dedicate it to those who died, those who were born, and those who survived.
(It appeared in the print edition as “Brave New World”)
read also
Doomsday is not in the future. it’s here and now
four horsemen of the apocalypse
Mevdi: A Short Story by Perumal Murugan
Gods, Bots and the New World Order
The Good Earth: Resilient and Resourceful
The pandemic widens the digital divide between the rich and the underprivileged
Umar Khalid’s Jail Diary: Bigotry Against Muslims Leaves Me Even More Alone
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