The Delhi rain

My current physiological state of a depleted set of hepatic cells has meant that I have had to be confined to my home for almost two weeks now with things looking good for an extension of three more till things get back to normal. Having nothing much to do apart from sleeping, eating bland food and drinking the prescribed fifteen glasses of fluid in any form is a drastic change from my schedule over the larger part of the previous two years. However, it is a welcome change and one that I had always looked forward to, but for the restricted diet.

Sitting in the balcony every morning, I have almost memorized the city's bijli-paani woes and the MET department's desperate predictions of the monsoon hitting Delhi soon. To be frank, this time the MET dept. proved correct, for once. The first shower provided the much needed respite from the sweltering heat. Sitting in the confines of my room, I just had to look through the window and enjoy the raindrops pelting the metal on the balcony. The scent of moist earth, arguably the best scent i can imagine, remined me of my ancestral village that I had just left in deep anguish and pain.

My parents enjoyed their cup of hot tea while the kids in my block scattered away from their parents, screaming in joy. The security guards hurried to get into their raincoats, the rickshaw-wallahs scurried to get below a hedge- elbowing each other rather selfishly. The MET department would have heaved a sigh of relief and I could already imagine their pompous grins on the next day's frontpage, 'There! Didn't we say it would happen yesterday?'. The fruit sellers scrambled their little shanty shelters in place, the lone tailor sitting on the edge of the street hurried to shut shop, lest his machine gets spoiled.

Some cursed the rain, some welcomed it, some hurried for cover, others ran to embrace it. Interesting how different people reacted differently.