Clouds in the sky, rain in the heart

That summer evening, as usual I was getting ready to water the garden (if one could call it a garden) and it started raining… The sweet smell of soil getting soaked in water just excited me. It always had excited me… I immediately rushed to the kitchen, made a cup of coffee, very much high on caffeine! Sipping a cup of hot, strong coffee, sitting at the verandah and “listening” the strong rain, feeling the drizzle now and then, when sudden small breeze comes. The combination would definitely make one lost in thoughts. In fact, it would make one lost in memories.

My mind descended a few years back… There were summers when we friends/cousins jumped into the pond in the evening to take a refreshing dip. We used the Hero Honda bike tyre as wicket while playing cricket, with the bat made out of Coconut Leaf's stem and ball made out of paper and rubber-band…. For the elder ones who thought, the rains would bring an end to its use, we gave a reply by riding the tyre through the streets under heavy rain, the water splashing on to the sides of it. But the elders found their joy when the water became knee deep. The tyre wouldn’t move properly through water logged streets. So, it was time for some athletic fete. We came from school (already drenched), put some old dress and would run into the streets and lanes, through the muddy water, with no tension of getting fever, with no tension of getting infected, with no fear of insects, reptiles or other creatures biting us. The tensions, worries and fears were only for the elders. Their tension increased when they saw our dirty dress; their anger increased when they saw the dirt sticking on to us while they used to bathe us; their worries increased when the clothes would not dry properly during the rainy season. For them, the clothes stink, for we kids, it was the smell of fun and joyous days. Now I wonder why they used to get tensed on seeing the clothes dirty. Some day or other the clothes were to be given away, at least when we grow and we wouldn’t fit inside the clothes…

During adolescent age, rain meant something else. It was time to let loose the fear of unknown, outside world, when we used to cycle through the streets in the rain. The rain literally hugged us. It was a time when we dreamt a lot. It was a time when we craved for love. It was a time when we got excited to go to school only because we could get a glance of our crush and lock eyes… We used to rush through the rain on cycle and wait at some point or other where we could get to see the “person”. We used to lie down on the bare floor with just a pillow, tuning the old radio which used to produce sounds like “Brrrrrrr! Shuing! Shuing!” and finally gave away its way to our own “Aakaashvani”; on Sunday afternoons, watching the rain outside. It was a period of imagination. It was a period of dreams. It was a period, when we wanted to make our better half, every good-looking person of other sex, we see. It was a period when the smallest issues felt like our biggest failures. It was a period when we cried in the rain because we felt we had no one’s shoulder to cry on. Still when we were laid down with some sickness, the parents were the only people to take us to nearby clinic, and stay awake at night to soak the cotton on our forehead with cold water… It used to rain during those days also, as if the nature was describing our parents’ mind…

We all reached college… It was time when the rain hugged us with more speed. We gave away the bicycles which taught us to balance two-wheelers and ascended motor bikes and mopeds. The rain drops pierced our body in fact. It was time when we used to spend time over coffee in college canteen when it rained outside, in a big lot of friends which I would call a “mixed bag”. There were different people from different departments, from different backgrounds, wearing colourful different dresses, with different attitudes, with different ideas. There used to be many proposals, many acceptance and more rejections. There were more untold love stories than told ones. There were many jokes and jokers. There were many birthday celebrations. There were many who felt alone amidst the crowd. There were assignments to be done; there were test-papers to be prepared for. Those were the times we first stood aghast facing the world of liquor and smoke. We had the fear of unknown. Few of us tested it for fun, few made it an occasional habit and called themselves “social drinkers”, while many became party animals, seeking the pleasure of getting drunk for every happiness and sorrows. There were many instances of fun as well as fights, laughs as well as cries, dancing as well as resting, while some who never drunk were busy settling the people who got high.

It was time for many of us to do some “Professional Degree” or post graduation. Thank god, there was professionalism at least in name. It was mere “rat race” as one could fondly put it in clichéd terms. It was quite unfortunate that, to an extent we also became part of it. It was time when we used to keep business papers and magazines close to us in the left hand and having breakfast of toasted bread and jam in the right, rushing through the drizzling rain early morning to attend the classes. Competitions from school were different from that of here. If the former was competition for cup or certificate, the latter was competition for better life. The former’s result was short term jealousy from those who got defeated, while the latter’s was long term grudge. There were many of us who thought ourselves to be “Google” having immense knowledge in everything under the sky, but reached nowhere. There were many of us who were able to prove things based on facts, figures and statistics. There were many of us when the lecturer asked about particular news, were able to tell them the page number and column number from the newspaper. There were times when many of us swore at teachers and lecturers for your failure in job market. There were times when many of us swore the whole educational system with the help of which we thought we had reached nowhere. There were times we swore at people whom we thought to be ours, when they left us grabbing a job in their hands, as if they were telling-“See what I have got, would you ever get near me at all?”. Can’t ever understand why we all did that! Why we spent the most beautiful time in hyper-tension? During those tough times, there were good friends whom we could tell our grief to. There were good people around to comfort us. There were few people who faced the same issue as that of us. Still we were able to laugh through everything and enjoy the life.

Now it is time every one of us have started our carrier. We all, at one point or another have felt lonely. While sipping the coffee and enjoying the rain, all these memories rolled back in my mind. I feel like telling out loud-“Oh rain! You were there always witnessing the events of my life, and I know you would continue doing it!”

NB: - If you ever felt, at any point, while reading, you are one among the above said ones, I tell you, it was purely intentional…