She
was thinking of cooking lunch in some time. There was no hurry since
they had a good and late breakfast after which he had watched some
T.V and slept. Easy, lazy Saturday for both. All of a sudden the sky
was overcast, dark clouds gathered very quickly and it started
raining heavily just like a PMSing herself would cry over a song or
his inconsideration or over missing her people - big, heavy rain
drops.
She
always found herself excited when it rained and there were many
reasons for that. Rains in her life time of 30 something years
happened with animation.
What was her first vague memory of
heavy rain? Her family was in a transit home before moving into a
proper one which would be made ready for them in some months. This
was an asbestos sheeted living space which leaked every where when it
rained, she remembered sleeping on the cot with her siblings while
her parents sat with two big umbrellas to cover them. In retrospect,
she felt sorry for her parents but for her the memory was of
excitement of huddling together, giggling with her siblings and being
up beyond her bed time.
During
later rains as she grew older the first thing her mother shouted when
it started raining was 'hey it is raining, quick go get the clothes
drying on the clotheline, quick close the door, quick quick', this was accompanied by her
and her siblings running in a mad dash to get dry, semi dry clothes
from the line, becoming a bit wet, bumping into each other, tugging
some clothes in impatience and tearing some one's precious garment
and so on. Always what followed after the rain gave an implicit
permission to throw the regular routine in the wind. Demands for
pakodas or chilli bajjis were put forth and later when she was an
young adult her brothers spoke of having some alcohol in the night
to celebrate the rain. They all did too, she blossoming into an efficient bar tender
with a clever hand which tipped less to the tipsy and more to people
who kept an eye on the pouring including herself.
There
were scary memories of rain too. During her regular summer vacations
in her grandparent's home with a mud terrace, she and her cousins
were always woken up in the dead of the night from deep slumber to
chaos of different relatives shouting different commands to different
people, 'fold the bed sheet', 'do not run down the stairs', 'leave
that pillow here', 'where is the lantern', 'children go with your
grandpa he will take you down' and so on. The summer shower also
brought scorpions out of their holes, she sat with her cousins bright
eyed seeing scorpions every where in the shadows, snakes under the
bed and too hyper to fall asleep forever. Nobody forced anybody to
sleep, every body used to be wide awake and used to start talking
and laughing again. This lulled her to sleep and not care for scorpions of the world.
In one
such Monsoon, her brothers met with an accident because it was rainy
season. Those rains which started as an adventure while they were
trekking the western ghats turned horrific as a train came un
announced. Though they were lucky not to lose their lives the rain
that night was the noisiest for her.
She
remembered her first kiss. It happened when he was a new acquintance
and there was electrifying chemistry between them. One fine night,
they stood in the backyard of her friend's room, it started raining,
there was no light, they were rooted in their spots not making a move
towards going back in or going towards a shelter from rain. To this
day both of them do not know what happened next, who
approached whom, but they found themselves kissing. That rain was
like a flower shower and intoxicating than any spirit she had ever tasted including Absinthe.
After
that they made many trips to the pub regularly soaking wet and
delirious in love. It was heady to drink chilled beer sitting in wet
clothes engulfed by warm thoughts. They came to know that they will
be together for ever during those nights and went there for every
anniversary, birthday and family event.
Today
the excitement of the rain made her bring the clothes from the
clothes line, plan for making pakodas, call her mother, sister, brothers and sister in law and to kiss him awake.
