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And the heavens open up
I wake up before dawn as the lunch boxes have to be packed. As I am rolling out the phulkas, I hear a different bird song. It is a song that I haven’t heard since a year, and yet I recognize it. It is the Jacobin cuckoo. It is too dark outside for me to spot it. I turn to Subodh and say, “It will rain today.”
He looks at me quizzically. I just heard a Jacobin cuckoo. The chaatak. The bird which Kalidasa mentioned in Meghdoot. The harbinger of rains.”
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And sure enough it rains that day. The rumbling of distant thunder makes my heart beat in excitement. It is the end of this summer ordeal. A shiny bolt of lightning streaks across the skies. And as if on cue, the electricity board does the one thing it understands. It gifts us a power-cut. But it is a welcome excuse to get out of office a few minutes sooner. It stops raining soon enough. Hardly ten minutes of rain.
As I drive back from work, it feels like a different cleansed world. On a scooter in front of me, I see a nurse gingerly lift the hem of her white saree, to save it from splashes from the puddles on the road. I grin at her, and she smiles at me, shaking her head. It reminds me to drive slower as you never know when your two-wheeler will skid in the moist soil.
Closer home, the parched earth seems to be thirstily gulping down the rain water. I slow down to look at the rain-washed trees. The wet jungle babblers are all shaking their heads. All of them look like puffed up balls of feathers. I open the gate to my house, and perched on top of the hibiscus shrub is a white-breasted water hen, calling its mate in its characteristic courtship call.
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As I enter home, I spot a large carton on the dining table. And a whoop of delight when I realize that Bhaiya has sent a boxful of my favourite Malda mangoes from Patna. As I slurp down the delicious mangoes, I don’t even mind the juice dribbling down my white Chikankari kurta. What could be better news for one day?
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2 Comments
Lakshmi iyer
Wish you had described the rain,even more, Anshu!!
Anshu
I didn’t get a chance to get drenched. Let that happen and I will write again!