“In Florence, despite all that human wisdom and forethought could devise to avert it, as the cleansing of the city from many impurities by...
“In Florence, despite all that human wisdom and forethought could devise to avert it, as the cleansing of the city from many impurities by officials appointed for the purpose, the refusal of entrance to all sick folk, and the adoption of many precautions for the preservation of health; despite also humble supplications addressed to God, and often repeated both in public procession and otherwise, by the devout; towards the beginning of the spring of the said year the doleful effects of the pestilence began to be horribly apparent by symptoms that shewed as if miraculous.”
– The Decameron (1353) by Boccaccio
The last day
Khang Iew, Market shutdown. Iewduh, Meghalaya’s biggest market, has been shut quite often this year. Citizenship Amendment Act. Inner Line Permit. In Ichamati, on Khasi Hills-Bangla border, residents attack an anti-CAA meeting and a driver from Sohra dies. Khang Iew. Iewduh can’t remain shut for many days. There is a knifing spree. A migrant trader from Assam dies looking for distress prices on tomatoes. Curfew. Khang Iew.
And then it opens again. Iewduh is in a quiet panic. He sees a Nepali porter’s cortege. Hears of Khlam, pestilence, rumours. Of public curfew.
She knows. He thinks he knows. They have grown up with curfews. Police. Public. Stock up...
