LIGHTNING!!
Sitting outside on my usual spot under the trees at 10 at night, just feeling the wind blowing through my newly two-toned hair, listening to Ahun Ahun and tappnig along, when suddenly the sky flashed.
I looked around at the people standing at the bus stop, a few yards away to see if they noticed. Nah, they didn't seem to be particularly affected. So I went back to AhunAhun and went back to my windfeelingthoughtthinking, debating about which song of Love Aaj Kal was my favourite, Dooriyan or Ahun, then there was of course Main Kya Hoon, and one certainly could not write off Thoda Thoda, but then why weren’t decisions as easy as knowing Ishq Hi Hai Rab was your favourite- when suddenly up above me, a little to my left, the sky disappeared. No, of course it came back. When I say disappeared, I mean it just went completely white, blank.
I paused, and shifted my eyes left and right as to ascertain that I was not just losing it. But no, it flashed again and the sky went electric blue around the edges of the clouds.
I press pause. Listen.
The sky flashed and suddenly, all sound stopped. No zoom of traffic, no people noise, everything faded away…nothing.
And no AhunAhun. Especially no AhunAhun. All of a sudden, all Ahun business and associates became the last thing on my mind. Lightning! Wind! Silence!
The possibilities were endless.
After a long day, a long HOT day, this was…
It was that resurfacing of something. Rain, no, the potential for rain. The possibility that at any second, that silence swallowing up the world could break loose as the sky fell apart and the clouds fell down in a sudden crash. It was positively delicious. It was full of something, that waiting, that held breath, that little hope and expectation, that little more of something, that little more that was joy, and every bit as much, sorrow.
It was beautiful, and such beautiful weather deserved a beautiful song.
Like playing slots at the casino, I hit the next button on my mp4 set on random shuffle.
The choices were many, hundreds. I was playing with slim chances, but the weather was on my side, either I lost out compleely, or the song would definitely play if IT was meant to be the right song.
When the music started, I smiled. I knew it.
Four minutes, thirty nine seconds.
Jackpot.
10:35 pm.
Still no rain.
Out again under the skies, for that Gal Sun length walk, I was thinking over the day. It was a good one. Funny how it sort of ended with missing the person you see everyday. I thought of today as we tramped through the forests, reaching the top of the hills, walking branches over the river, doing the whole outdoors thing. Friends.
And then, here comes the rain. And on a nice ending to the night:
aankhon mein anjaane rehte manzar ke
seene mein chubti hain koi bebasi nai
yaadon mein basi kuchh baaten ankahee
unn baaton mein kahin khoyi hain zindagi…
Goodnight.
