When It Rained

It was the month of July. Rain was no longer a guest now. Chai ka pyaala and pakodas with Geetmala on radio was a 4 o'clock scene in every household. "Maa I don't want to go to school in this rain", said Meena removing her school shoes. "I will start wearing my old shoes from tomorrow till the rains stop. You give me a letter writing the same to the PT teacher."

Rains have taken a toll on everyone not only Meena. Most of the daily activities have come to halt these days. Every thing rescheduled according to the rain, the whole routine changed. Madhavi does not mind doing it, as long as the rain sticks to that schedule. Continuous downpour has made her crippled. Their house no longer resembles their own, with wet clothes hanging everywhere and water lying on the floor even though Madhavi wipes it at the mere sight of it. The house now stinks of the smell that wet clothes give when not dried in sun. She has asked her maid not to come till the rains stop, not because it was difficult for her to walk 2 kilometres in the rain but because she used to dirty the house more with her wet soiled saree in the pretext of cleaning it. What should I prepare for tonight's dinner, the tarkari has not come today, thought she. "How would he even come when the water on the road does not let his cart enter the street?"

She was always forewarned, preparing enough pickles and papad during summer so that they are of use during times like these. She would always keep her refrigerator stuffed with extra vegetables and meat. But things have changed in the past few weeks because of her illness. Throughout her illness, she had seen her husband and daughter eat in canteens. Some other times Mithun used to bring curry from a nearby restaurant and prepare rice at home. Now since she is back to her normal health, she didn't want those scenes to repeat in her house. Tonight she didn't want to end up cooking just dal rice, not that Mithun would say anything but it is just not her. She would at least prepare dal, curry, roti and rice along with achaar and dahi. Now that her in-laws are here, she didn't want it more. She was not angry that they had not come to see her during her illness. She had always liked them, thought them to be her family which she didn't have of her own. She was the only child of her parents and they had both died in a car crash when she was very young. Her mother-in-law was not very happy with Mithun's decision of getting married to Madhavi because of this. She always doubted how well a child could be raised when not under parents' guidance. Madhavi was raised by her tauji, her father's elder brother, who also passed away recently. So this was the only family she had. She tried her best to impress her mother-in-law going to the extent of naming her daughter after her. There was no enmity between the both of them and at the same time they were not the best mother-in-law daughter-in-law pair.

Since it seemed that the rain was not going to take a break, she decided to go out and get the vegetables herself immediately lest it might grow dark. She changed into a synthetic saree so that even if it gets wet, it would not take much time to get dried unlike her cotton sarees. Carrying an umbrella, she marched towards the market. The market was not very far but because of the flooded roads, she took an auto. They took the longer route to the market since the regular route was completely flooded and there was no scope for a vehicle to move. It took her an hour and by the time she reached the market, it was nearly dark. Having asked the auto driver to wait for a while, she went to buy the vegetables. She took whatever the vendors gave without even properly seeing if the vegetables were fresh or if they were rotten. Usually she never bought anything without bargaining and unless she was assured that each vegetable was spotless. When they started back, the downpour had increased to the extent that the driver was not able to see anything beyond 2 metres distance. Driving slowly they reached a point where lot of other vehicles were stuck since trees had fell and blocked the way. Mithun would have reached home, she thought.

"I should not have allowed your mother to go out in this rain. As soon as your father is home, I will send him to see for her." Meenakshi said. All sorts of evil thoughts crossed her mind and made her restless. "People won’t die if they don't feast a day", she said and started walking rapidly across the room. Meena tried to pacify her grandma but to no avail. Mithun reached home just then and announced what the weather news said about the heavy downpour in the next few days and asking people to stay indoors and how people went missing the last time it rained so heavily. Meenakshi grew more anxious on hearing this and started pacing rapidly. When asked she told all that happened and said "All my fault". Just then Madhavi appeared. As she started explaining, Meenakshi rushed and hugged her. Tight. Nobody said a word. A tear trickled from their eyes.