Rains are nature's way of expressing romance I feel.It is when the sky & earth are overwhelmed with their feelings for each other that they touch each other through rains.It is just like a warm embrace which we give our loved ones when we fall short of words to express our love for them,the sky and earth,never getting to meet, embrace each other through rains.
My earliest memories of rains are during my summer vacations in childhood when me and my brother used to have race of paper boats through the little stream of water along the verandah of our family home in Khurda. My brother had a habit of running out to the open whenever there was lightning instead of staying inside home as he thought lightnings were God's way of taking our photos like the camera flash :P Vivid memories of him running out of the room to smile at God's flash while his parents saying Aye Aye Come back ! :D The other happy memories are of the delight I used to get while watching the world from the window pane of our car when it used to rain. I used to be so happy that I wrote a poem titled it also way back then.
Then there was the period of adolescence.Rains gained a new dimension apart from paper boats & giggles.
There was a tiny element of something called Romance entering my imagination. Movies, songs, poems & books like Ruskin Bond's novels had created an element of romance with the rains which I shyly identified with.This was also the phase of school hoildays declared just because of incessant rains.Yet along with the happiness of "Rainy days holidays" I dont know why I longed to enjoy the rains.
The drizzles & downpours during school have left behind so many memories. The table by the window in the library which allowed me and my friend to sit & have our chit chat while reading books & enjoying the rain. The delicious taste of the "Dahibara Aludum" prepared by Nidhi bhai,who used to sell it on a cycle just beside the school boundary wall.Having it just after the rains would add an extra element of taste to it. The "Sawan Barse Tarse Dil" song from Dahek which my friend used to sing as we roamed through the corridors of our school.The cycle races between friends along with the thrill of the slippery rain soaked roads. And finally the mysterious element of Romance soaked in me while listening to my favorite songs on the walkman watching the rain through the window of my room. It is the rains which helped me sow the elements of love in my adolescent heart.
Adulthood came & brought a lot of realities & complexities with it too. Some of which we accept, some of which we know & some of which we pretend not to know or accept.The rains were still there but the way I saw them had changed in a way. It no longer was just about wonder & love. It was the feeling of letting out everything I had inside me before those who mattered to me.I got this habit of crying shrouded by loneliness whenever I was emotionally upset by anything. Tears had become my emotional outlet.They epitomized rain for me sometimes.
A few days back when I was returning from office, it was raining.I was without an umbrella. The tiny cold droplets of rain touched me.I looked up, amidst the hustle bustle of Bangalore traffic & people, I felt as if a dear old friend had just greeted me.I smiled & rushed towards the bus stop.The bus stop had a gulmohar tree under which we waited for the bus.The amber street light above the tree made the droplets on the gulmohar leaves look like tiny decorative lights.It was a delightful sight as if my old friend had decorated the tree for me. After so many years I experienced the similar feeling of delight like I had in childhood.I smiled & wondered how these years had passed by.
As I boarded the volvo bus, I was happy to see the window seat vacant.Its was as if my old friend was lovingly asking me to sit there.I sat & looked outside the window, people were running around, some giggling,some so frustrated.The drops were settling on the glass window & slowly meandering downwards. I had put my headphones on & the song was "Sawan Barse Tarse Dil". I could not help but smile at the perfect moment.
There were couples on bikes adding the element of Romance too, holding each other, not bothered about getting wet as they had each other. Rain soaked roads, trees, people & the view by the window which delighted me so many years back.All this was there for me, a perfect way in which the rains brought together all that I had missed in so many years.
The next morning I woke up , the rains had stopped but I was still lost in the happy memories the rains had drenched me in.Life is beautiful. Cheers to life !
