It was odd that it rained. Looking at the sky
you wouldn’t think it would, there weren’t any clouds. The young lad at the
sales counter had few seconds before another customer approach for billing,
he could see a piece of sky from the tinted glass of the mall. He though couldn’t
see the billowing clouds in the horizon, it rose rapidly as if there was an
explosion somewhere far off. The blue sky appear dull brown through the glass,
he doesn’t like it a bit. Occasionally he could see a kite soaring like a
moving crack through the window. He thought it would fissure through the whole
building. The red beam from the machine identified the barcode and approved
with a click, the price had entered and summed. He returned the change and
attempted a smile but withheld it as the customer had turned away and moved to
the exit. If it rains now then the pond will be overflowing with water, the
monsoon had only retreated a month ago, the field, the ground, the whole land was
saturated. There were fish in the water, the old man warned some of these catfish
have horns so be careful. The fish jumped out of water to avoid being caught,
he thought they were only excited as he was. It rained like a carpet of water
sprayed from a hose broken at different spots, some places it rained more some
places less. He thought that is how it must rain, it shouldn’t be same. He
liked the way the plastic felt in his hand, smooth and glossy, he could feel
the content inside and imagined the taste. Sometimes he smelt, they all smell
like paint, fresh as new. One bird is for sadness two is for joy, he didn’t
held it against the sky. The number of birds has gone down. The old man says
the city has gulped down the birds and the trees, one day it will gulp him too.
He felt a strange knot along his neck and shoulder, a dull pain that spread all
the while. It must be the way he sat, he tried to improve his posture and be
erect. The effort didn’t last long, he had slackened. The fingers punched the
keyboard, it was an old model computer so he had to hit harder, it hurt in the
afternoons and was sore in the mornings or maybe he is imagining it. When it
rained the trees conspired by spreading its branch and sucking all the
raindrops. The earth was disemboweled, the brick red mud flowed through rivulets
that grew bigger and wider. It was fun to run through these muddy streams,
sometimes the foot would get stuck and water starts to form a puddle around the
legs till they are like stumps.
Rows
and rows of finely packaged products in multicolored hue filled the shelves. He
could see droplets of water sliding the pane and blurring the view, the sky was
dull brown balloon that was bursting along the seam. It pounded the glass
viciously and rattled the ceiling. Light music of flute and percussion blunt
the noises that were thrashing the outside world. The melody waft and bounce
along the shining clean floor of the mall. The colours shimmered on the
reflective walls like smudged wild flowers. The old man walks along the
rivulets unblocking the clogs and let it seep across the field, a pair of
egrets studiously follow him. A startled grasshopper was instantly consumed. The
earth now glistens in shades of green. Green is the colour of life, he says,
while brown is decay. The numbers add as he hit the ‘enter’ key and wait for
the bill to be printed, it made noise faintly resembling an annoyed lapwing.
You must let the earth seep through your feet, they are your roots, when the
old man touches the tree his hands become the branch, his veins start to throb with
life. His eyes go further deep inside the sockets as his soul enter the tree. I
only know to live and more I live more I offer, that is what sustains me. The
clouds have hid the sun, the dull light had turned darker. The salesman could
see the world across the glass pane getting dark, much faster than he thought. The
world was closing on him and he was steadily collapsing into a smaller space. He
stopped the billing and held his head so that it doesn’t burst. The middle aged
customer was perplexed out of her routine as she searched around for help, she
couldn’t decide what to buy. The world was splitting into hundreds of pieces each
moving away randomly, sometimes criss crossing and tangling in itself. Another man at the counter had frozen at the
sudden turn of event and waited for things to return to normal. The sales boy stood up, walked out of his
counter and the mall. Outside it was grey. He gently caressed himself along the
face and neck, and decided to run as fast as he could.
