Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Wetter the better!

The sun is belting down and combined with humidity is making for a really sweaty day. A glance skywards confirms clouds gathering up and getting lower towards earth. The wind has picked up speed and there is dust flying all over. Little whirls of breeze are lifting up bits of plastic and paper and carrying them some distance until they fall.

The clouds meanwhile are turning grey and soon there is a flash of lightning. A few seconds later there is a loud clap of thunder. The trees have started swaying vigorously. The leaves slowly start looking greener as a result of the dust falling off them. There is another flash of lightning followed by even louder thunder.

A huge drop strikes the ground and then breaks into several little droplets. A few feet away another drop repeats the phenomenon. Then there are a few more drops and the sky is nearly black. The aroma of water mixing with dry sand fills the air. Another huge flash of lightning lights up everything and there it is. A downpour! Clear liquid falling from the heavens whereas a turbid stream flowing down the trees. The leaves have gone completely green.

Small rivulets start obeying gravity and flow down the gradients. That sight takes me back to my childhood, when we used to make paper boats and let them float. Scattered potholes turn into puddles, in which little kids jump and splash. The atmosphere is now cooler and that’s how it stays till the downpour turns into a drizzle and finally comes to a stop!

Well, it’s almost the end of October, and we still have rains. Little wonder, that I had to write this.

Friday, October 01, 2010

A moment of love!

We all encounter love in the strangest of forms. It’s purely subjective and hence others may not quite understand it although it makes great sense to us. A long time ago, something like that happened to me. It was not romantic love by any stretch of imagination. It was just a good human being showing care for another. I am a firm believer that care cannot exist without some form of love. I was 12 years old and she was around 20. She had no brothers and I was her neighbour.

I remember our household TV had conked off once and I the eternal couch potato used to shamelessly go to her place to catch something on the tube. One day while watching a cartoon show, there was a power failure. Amidst all that humor, this felt like a calamity and it instantly showed on my face. That female too pulled a long face and said, "Well, let’s hope that the power comes back soon." I took her leave and trundled back home, which was just the adjacent building. Five minutes had passed when I was shaken from my seat by a loud call of my name. The call coincided with my ceiling fan switching on. I rushed to my balcony and saw her waving to me yelling, "Come, come, the power's back, the show's still on."

Maybe then, I was too young to realize, but today I smile with a sense of gratitude. As nonchalant as it may seem, now I believe that knowingly or unknowingly that calling out to me was a moment of real kindness, a moment of love! We no longer stay there and I don’t know where she is now but wherever she is - May god bless her!