The task of the solitary man is to be even more solitary - Emil Cioran It happens all of a sudden. A random conversation with a friend. A conversation that is not even solidified in voices, rather through words on the screen. My mind reads it in my own voice. Yet, there is something in its rhythm that is not me. Perhaps, that's the awareness of self that I should be thankful for. Nevertheless, it reminds me how long it has been since I spoke to someone outside my house. My cousins call often. But I leave those conversations to my parents. The pandemic might have taken a toll beyond human measure. Children dead. Old people eaten alive by the ruthlessness of life. A million hands for ten loaves of bread. For me, it has been a cocoon from all the noise in the world. I like being abandoned. Call me crazy, and many do, but you cannot really be sure of knowing yourself unless you only have yourself to know. I know every inch of my insecurity, and its insecurity, and the pride wit...