COVIDYSTOPIA- April 14, 2022 AD (Somewhere in India, around noon)
It was quite cool outside. A South Indian city in summer time. Mrs. X was in the balcony, taking in the cool breeze. Three years ago, the same city had been boiling hot. Sitting in the balcony, without air conditioning would have been a sultry affair back then.
She was trying to remember how it was thirty years back. This had once again become the city of her youth. Returned to her by a pandemic flu which hit the world in 2019.
The wheels of vehicles had stopped turning around the same time of the year, three years ago. People just stopped going out of their homes, except for absolute necessities or emergencies. The disease was still raging around the world in a thousand mutated strains, with no vaccines in sight.
The climate had slowly changed after the vehicles stopped running. Who'd have ever thought that the summer in this city would morph from a nightmare to a dream.
(Disclaimer – this is fiction, exploring the what-ifs, post pandemic.)