It was the summer of five years ago. Or was it six? In the long conference hall that could seat 50 people if required, with a huge white board at one end and a clock at the other, and an oval table in the middle, we sat discussing our project. There were features and there were deliverables and then there were those inevitable creeps they call bugs. A member of my team, a young engineer, was explaining his predicament – the bug he was trying to squash refused to be squashed.
“I tried,” he said, “but I could not able to fix it.”

I looked up. His face betrayed helplessness and confusion. The conversation strayed to possible methods to tame the bug. I stayed where I was, unblinking. I could not able to… His thoughts must have stumbled over each other, I decided. I could not fix it and I was not able to fix it had collided, I consoled myself. I shook my head free and hurried to join the others.

It did not take me long to realise that the thoughts, if they had collided once, had become glued to each other. Every time he could not able to fix something, he said… I mean, every time he could unable to… okay, whatever. You get the idea.

It was not just he, I soon noticed. A lot of people could not able to do a lot of things. The virus was spreading!

One can imagine how my mouth fell open when last week I received a mail from a senior official in a Government organisation, a reply to my request for something or the other…

“Dear Madam, Please send me the details so that we can able to update our records… “

Watch out! Apparently the virus is not yet under control…
I could not able to resist posting this here.