Rain

So, me, Jatin sir, Mukesh sir and Rana sir were walking down to my cousin’s place because he was putting up his house for rent and these guys were interested. We could see the dark clouds. And I had been continuously smiling because the dark clouds looked really beautiful and reminded me of Bombay and how I’d stand in the balcony and look at the clouds come from the sea. These clouds today weren’t just figuratively dark, they were almost black. Literally. So we kept walking because they were far away, somewhere around the horizon. We thought we’d get drenched if we went, so I called up my cousin to ask if it was OK if we came to his place the next day instead. He said he wouldn’t be here the next day so we decided to go anyway, despite the dark clouds. We’d hardly taken a couple of steps and it came down pouring. What looked beautiful suddenly felt even more beautiful. I couldn’t stop laughing. So I ran back to the hostel, slowing down as I did, because I wanted to get wet and feel the rain. I looked up, our college has these huge halogen lamps installed in places, I looked at one of them and saw the rain fall down in the light of the lamp. Felt like eternity. So I came back to the hostel, smiled at the guard sitting there and got to my room. Dried my head with a towel, changed and went out on to the porch on the third floor. Now this was the best part. I was standing there watching the rain, clicking pictures. That’s what I like a lot about the rain, I can be safe inside and watch it come down and not touch me. one of the things that I really want to do is stand in a room made of glass on the terrace of a very tall building. I went to Pankaj’s room who lived on the same floor. Left my phone there and came back to the porch, got Pankaj along as well. As we stood in the porch, watching the rain come down, the wind started blowing in our direction. And the little drops of water, not the big raindrops, but the little ones that could be blown away by the wind started falling on us. That was bliss. It wasn’t rally drenching or making it hard for me to keep my eyes open or having me to wipe my face all the time, but just little droplets of water and it would feel very nice and cool when the wind would blow.

The Narrow Street

I just ventured out today. I missed the only class I had because I didn’t feel like attending the class. I walked out of the college gate. The only thing on my mind was to go about the locality I lived in, sector 62/63 and find out why it was amazing to live here. I remembered being excited about living here because it was close to Delhi. But I never ended up going to Delhi with the frequency I would have expected myself to go there. So I remained here feeling depressed about how going to Delhi could have been much more fun. Then I looked down the road that went right past the gate. It looked as beautiful and clean as the road down India Gate or at Connaught Place. I live next to a very beautiful road.

I continued walking. The trees across the drain always looked dirty with all the dust that had settled on them. Today they looked beautiful. Of course they would look beautiful. I was out to look for beauty. I walked the same beautiful road. I looked up. Through the leaves of the trees I could see the sun. Now that was another wonderful thing I never expected to see here. I kept walking and tried looking at the sun through the leaves.

What came to my mind next was another weird thought out of nowhere. I decided I’d walk up to a fruit seller and ask him the rates of all the fruits on his stall. So I kept walking. I came across a very narrow street that I’d never seen before. It reminded me of the small town that my grandparents used to live in. It got me feeling really humble. I decided to walk in. I walked down the street. Urbanization had changed me so much. I remember being with my cousin once in one of those thin narrow streets, one of his friends showed up on a bike and I thought his friend was cool. I had in front of me a similar scene. There was a little girl, her older brother and a friend who showed up on a bike. The girl’s eyes had the same look of respect for the cousin’s cool friend as I used to. But to me the guy on the bike was someone I wouldn’t trust in the normal world outside the little narrow street.

Urbanization changes us so much. There were hardly a couple of big brand posters in that narrow street. Everybody was humble. The kids were playing; the buffalos were tied right next to the road. Nobody had a problem with that. Whereas outside the street, it would be shocking to see a child right next to a buffalo. The buffalo could hurt the child you see.

Another great thing I felt as I turned back to walk back up the street to come back to the main road was the people who came to the world outside the street to work. They were mostly blue collar workers in the industries around or the rickshaw pullers. For us, outside the street, they represented people who didn’t make it very big or somebody who because of the lack of opportunity couldn’t make something better out of their lives. But to the people inside the street they were fighters, going out into the big, bad, urbanized world to earn their bread. They would come back to the tiny little street every night and tell their families about their encounters in the world. Which their wives and children would tell their friends the next day. And everybody would know.

I walked out of the street. I smiled at every rickshaw puller who asked me if I needed him to drop me somewhere and politely said no. Otherwise I would have just walked by. He’s a fighter in his own little way; from his own little street somewhere in the city. And not just the rickshaw pullers and the workers I saw. I realized how everyone had a story which was very different from our opinion of them. Even the people in the big cars or the ones driving off for a picnic with their families.

And I was almost back in college by now. All that in just half an hour. It felt like an hour if not ages. And the guy I asked, was selling oranges for Rs. 5 per 250 grams and grapes for Rs. 10 per 250 grams.