Splashes & Thunder

A car drove past me, very close to the footpath I was walking on, splashing some water from a puddle. I instinctively looked at my cargos & checked the damage & saw a beautiful pattern I had never seen before. Somehow it looked beautiful, although it meant spending another 10 minutes for washing. The pattern became an after thought when the cold monsoon breeze passed thru my t-shirt. Within no time, the sky changed its shape into an unfathomable dark balloon masking all the daylight & reminding me of the existence of nature'™s will. I heard the rustling of leaves on the road side trees & saw people'™s hair getting dishevelled by the strong gusts of wind. Ladies tending to their sarees, little girls tending to their polka dotted skirts, grandpa's trying to hold on to their canes a little firmly as if the stick will bolt them to the ground against the strong winds. Sudden flashes of light caught everyone'™s attention for just a second & then everyone got back to what they were upto. Then followed the proverbial Digital Surround Sound effect of the skies, loads of thunder. Everyone on the street paced up to escape the inevitable shower. The skies grew darker, you could see the counter effect of the precursors of rain, shop owners extending their make shift plastic roof tops, birds flying away more rapidly than necessary & people imitating the birds.

The first drop is always the coolest, the purest, most satisfying, convincing us the change in seasons bringing out good memories from previous monsoons. It hit my forehead with the same excitement with which I received it. We met for the first time this year, his purpose in life complete to meet the earth, to make it wet, to spread the sweet smell of wet mud. I was an inanimate object for the drop & so was it to me, we touched each other & something changed in our minds. The jubilant satisfaction it must have felt when it fulfilled its purpose of reaching the earth & the satisfaction I felt because of the chill it had brought with it. I stood there on the footpath soaking up the monsoon with absolutely no thoughts in my mind. That was the clearest moment of my life when I didn'™t have to worry about being validated by someone for what I felt, not being responsible for my thoughts. It was the closest I came to some form of absolute truth.

The skies registered the presence of the monsoon clouds constantly with roaring thunder. Puddles of water started to gather on the street, you could see the reflection of a lightning in the puddle amidst water drops that constantly distorted the reflection. I was soaking wet within a few minutes, when I came back to myself & thought, This is how it feels when you take a shower with your clothes on.