Rain

Imagine yourself high up in the sky, gliding around lazily. A bird’s eye view of the city. Come down in concentric circles. The tiny dots acquire shape- regular and geometric… irregular and chaotic. Rooftops of high rises, serpentine roads, patches of greenery, shimmering water bodies. Further descending, you notice newer colourful specs appearing… cars, billboards, trains like millipedes crisscrossing the city. The August sky is pregnant with dark rolling monsoon clouds. The city looks a dangerous shade of grey. The wind picks up. Open your wings and let the coil take control of you. You are being tossed around like a weightless plastic bag. Dust from the street kicks up and blurs your vision. And then the water breaks.

Inside, the windows are open. The orange Fab-India curtains flap witlessly, in the gusty wet wind. The raindrops arranged like sheets of sleet change direction with the squall. Ravishankar plays the Malhar raga on the iPod. Let’s say it’s a Wednesday afternoon. The guilty pleasure of skipping office spreads through the body, like a shot of cocaine. There’s no milk at home. So, they cut a thick piece of lemon and squish it into the freshly prepared tea. In another half an hour, they’d go back to bed… hold each other… watch the raindrops trickling down the window pane, as they make love. Waking up, they would take a walk to the nearby beach… the wet sand touching their feet, the wispy drizzle caressing their bodies.

And so the August afternoon, turns into an inky monsoon evening. Orange street lights reflect off the wet street… black umbrellas everywhere, as the crowd returns home… the Bhuttawala roasting sweet corn on the earthen kiln… street kids play in the grimy water of the roadside pothole.

Start ascending… follow the same helical pattern. First the umbrellas will become mere black dots, then the orange neons will turn into an illuminated pearl necklace… the cars with their headlights like urban fireflies… rise further, until the whole city looks like a glittering electronic circuit board… then further up… and further… until darkness engulfs you…