In the Rain...

The faintest tap on my brow… the barest feeling of wetness… I looked up out of habit… it was starting to rain.

I found grey clouds gathered miles above my head… blotting out the sultry rays of daylight. I had no idea how they had sneaked up so quietly… stealthily… catching me and the whole city by surprise… on a day that had been so... sunny.

I held out my hand… an action born of habit… and felt a few more of the first tiny droplets fall onto my skin. I brought the hand back… held it up to my eye and saw the designs of the splashes made by the falling water.

The thunder rumbled overhead and I got abruptly jerked out of my trance… had to find shelter… it wouldn’t do to show up at work all wet and drizzling.

I resumed walking… at a more brisk pace, as above me… the rain began.

I found a small unoccupied space out of the shower… just below an old fashioned cornice.

I stood there and waited patiently for the rains to break.

The first few minutes of the drizzle had no effect on the bustling city at all. The water was absorbed into the hot roads and pavements as soon as it fell. Within seconds… all that remained of the small wet splash it had made was… a memory.

The grey pitch on the road… turned momentarily black as the drops fell… and then grey again before the next one could fall… again and again. It seemed that this shower would do nothing to soothe and calm the city… not bring to it a single moments respite.

Gradually though it succeeded in moistening the stones…. No longer did they dry uselessly on the asphalt… they glistened there having sated the heat of the parched ground below.

I could not wait for the rain to stop any more… I had to move.

I stepped out of my small dry alcove… and into the shower.

I remembered how as a kid I had loved getting wet…. Splashing about on the field chasing a soccer ball through the little puddles… screaming with the sheer unbridled joy that was a part of being a child enjoying the rain.

Back then though, I had been in shorts… not suits. Perhaps that’s what had changed.

I shook some of the water out of my hair… another activity that used to be greatly emphasized and enjoyed by a younger version of me… and began to walk again.

The road felt cooler… softer beneath my heels as I walked…. It hadn’t become wet enough to be slippery or start splashing yet… it was just wet enough to seem… beautiful.

The dust was gone… beaten down by the incessant drops which had slowly begun to colour the bleached world again.

I felt my damp hair once more… knowing it was getting plastered to my scalp… and smiled.

I could feel the water seeping in under my clothes… sending a shiver through my spine…. My laptop would be fine I knew… the bag was waterproof… so as long as I didn’t get overly worked up about catching a cold later on… there was no reason I could not try and enjoy this.

I slipped off my watch and shoved it in the bag as well… and slowed down.

The rain was still the same… it had not gone up or down a single notch… yet, now small runnels could be seen inching their ways towards the wayside gutters.

They joined each other and grew in volume and velocity… eventually reaching the drain which was gushing along like a fountain….

I stepped lightly over the drain and onto the pavement… to better avoid being drenched by a car driving through the accumulating puddles. I strolled on… now beneath the eaves of the tress that had been planted on the sidewalk.

It may have been the euphoria induced by my childhood reminiscing, or it may have been real… but somehow the brown of the trunks seemed… fresher… more alive to me as I walked past. The green of the leaves more… lustrous… vibrant and sparkling through their light patina of raindrops….

My jovial mood… that apparently was watered by the rain rather than being dampened… was reflected in my fellow pedestrians too.

Instead of the expected grumbling that one would usually hear on a day of a sudden rain… I was greeted more with faint snatches of giggles and laughter as groups of people moved past… everyone clearly as wet as I was… everyone clearly enjoying the rain.

Young kids bundled up in their rain coats splashing their friends with water as they headed for school… middle aged office goers smiling bemusedly as rain trickled down their bald heads and into their eyes… teenagers flamboyantly soaking up the downpour with not a care in the world… couples huddling together under a single umbrella, whispering to each other… and the occasional car charging through the gathered water and spraying the world with even more wetness…. No doubt the driver would have eagerly loved to be out enjoying the sprinkle too… and was merely having to compensate by getting his car to do the splashing.

It went against logic… how something that was supposed to bring the city to a stand still… had merely become a funfest for all age groups….

I thought back to when I used to do all those fun little things on a rainy day….

Sailing paper boats as a toddler... diving around in the slush in the name of football, as a kid… walking to school shrouded in a rain coat, taking care to stomp hard on every little pool of water along the way… running through the sheets of water, shaking my hair and waving my hands at my friends, as a teenager… walking hand in hand with a special girl only aware of the raindrops shining on her lips… and now… trudging up the steps to my dull, dead, dry office… at twenty-seven years of age….

In that moment, I hated my job… hated being dry… hated any season that wasn’t the monsoons… hated not being able to stay out on that street and… getting wet….

I stopped on the top stair making an attempt to at least cursorily dry myself off and avoid leaving a wet trail all the way to my work station…. I turned back to the street one more time before I had to enter.

The rains were still on… at exactly the same pace… not so light as to be ignored… but not so heavy that it would be cursed… just right. It’s constant pattering had now filled the street with a thin layer of water that seemed to be gathering faster than it could be dissipated by the gully pits… the pedestrians on the street now seemed to have been at home when it began and were better equipped to deal with all the water.

Rubber boots, umbrellas and jackets… and the water in the street… and the rain still falling from the sky… a perfect and complete picture that I wouldn’t have fit into anyway… had I got the chance.

I smelled the moist air one last time and went in while outside… the rain spattered on.