Drenched, in something more than rain...

She left the house at the first sound of rain drops hitting the ground. She left the conversation that the other members of the household were so engrossed in. It wasn't quite there yet, the intensity of the rain. She strolled around the area open to sky... a male voice singing into her ears...kyun tera sab yeh ho gaya, hua kya...she smiled, looking around at the place that had been her solace more than often...the view of the tops of buildings, the road beneath, the people walking...people who would never know they were being watched by a pair of eyes above them. It took her a moment to absorb the beauty of the scene...like she was carefully sorting the trees into different shades of green...like she wouldn't be able to see anything quite like this anywhere else, maybe because she really didn't want to. She walked, wondering why she felt like the rain drops were purposely evading her...she stood still, and then it started...like some force she couldn't fathom had heard unsaid words from her, and played to her wishes. The drops fell quicker, were more in number, and now fell directly on her head...dampening her hair...imprisoning it...not allowing the wind to dance with the long strands of black-brown. But she didn't seem to care...she welcomed every drop like it held purity undefinable. She spread her arms wide, and looked up at the sky, allowing her face to dwell in the chill...and she heard the words...Barf se Khelte baadalon ka, shauk hai... In a trance, she glided away into a partially sheltered area...now watching the rain...Neend ki goliyon ka, khwaab ki loriyon ka...her watch told her the time was 1.45, through a drop that magnified the time for her...she was leaning on a pillar...watching the trees sway...the grey clouds moving...to shower their drops on some other part of the city...she did not want to be left behind by the rain...did not want to remain there until the rain stopped. She started walking towards the exit...smiling involuntarily... Jisse tum ghunghunaaye, mere dhun hai vahin...somehow, it seemed to dawn upon her that there would come a time when she wouldn't be able to walk into this place whenever she wanted...she wouldn't be able to have her mid-day reveries...smiling for no reason at all...realising the irony of lyrics...She wasn't going to let the thought steal the goodness of the moment. She pushed her wet hair back from her forehead, made her wet face even wetter by wiping it on her sleeve, and walked away....from the rain, from the surrender she felt a few minutes ago, carrying in her heart the bliss she felt from the moment the first rain drop hit her eye...she walked down the green staircase. The door was half open, just the way she had left it. The same conversation was continuing inside the house, with very minor changes. And here was a world that remained untouched by the mid-day rain...where nothing changed...for all she knew, her absence wasn't even noticed. All she knew was, it didn't matter...something was changed inside her, and she had a pretty good feeling it was going to last for a very long time...Pyaar tumhe kithna karthe hain, tum yeh samaj nahi paaoge...

I didn't always like getting wet in the rain. Things change.

Yours "drenched, in something more than rain..." ly
Signing off...