It is very difficult to call any rain first rain in Bangalore…. Rains had always been very kind to this beautiful city. They come every evening to wash her and make her new before the night comes and plays its game with her… with innocence in the air and warmth in her streets this city gave me shelter and gave earth to my feet which didn’t know how is it to stand (knew only to walk on air and race with wind).
She came to me in many forms … as my first job… as my first shelter outside home … the loner’s walk and friends innumerable… my first achievement and my first mess-up… everything was with her… finding definition in different forms… many memories still find the link to her…
Many incidences which shaped me are cause of her… and I remember my first rain with her… this first rain also has another sweet person who shared her shelter with me (and what makes her special is that we share our birthdays too) and I felt home in this city with her for the first time…
S and me started staying together by March and surprisingly our food habits and cleanliness criterion matched for a happy living… I didn’t know her much from our earlier encounters neither did her… slowly we found and discovered each other in a relation which later to be called friendship… a bond we shared without realizing…
It was the April when we had the first trouble with the landlord and we planned to move… I would give the sole credit to S for finding us a house on the terrace in posh locality of RT Nagar…. What I did was suggesting the craziest way we would take our saman to the new place (and she agreed at the word go) a simple task which we made hilarious for a singular reason that it had us in it…(a big story with naughty tidbits but not here)…
We enjoyed the airy beautiful…house of ours… loved everything about it….it was the month of May the spring was bowing goodbyes and winds suggested rains are not far away…. We didn’t know how it is to be in Bangalore when it rains…. We the native of arid and composite climate lands never realized how it is to be soaked in seconds and feel it for the whole day…
the romanticism was written on the whole sky when we stepped out of the house to visit some place on Bellary road… so much so that the mood forced us to walk on our way back… Aah! The wind so wild greeted us… entering in to our clothes which flew… the skirt which went with her and the brown corduroy jackate which knew nothing about the rain… we laughed (as we always do) while we chatted.. Walking briskly… fast… fast… I yelled… as if to match the wind… we saw a board suggesting “artifacts sold here” and winked to each other… and the laughter that followed… none could ever miss the instantaneous rush of laughter just after we realize our thoughts are so much in tandem…
All eyes were at us as we entered the lobby of a well designed craft (crafted pieces from Andhra but not Lepakshi for sure) store.
Just when we entered the store slowly… cautious of the attention … a little shy hiding the ever laughing spirit in us… she came with all its vigor… she rushed and splashed the whole stock of water she had for the season… she wouldn’t stop… the stop gates are now open and the rush of desire in her mood said she wont stop… she had to meet another beauty the earth of Bangalore.. after it soaks and damps the air of Bangalore..
“Madam! you are stuck” said the shopkeeper… I didn’t realize at once whether he is talking about me getting stuck till the rain stop or me not able to take my eyes off a very expensive wallet embroidered finely by the karigars of Hyderabad… I smiled… checked my pocket… not enough money… humm… S bought some pieces for her wedding and was pleased… but what about rains they won’t stop….
She with her flooding ways of washing Bellary road wooed me to come to her… her sways mesmerized all and I was nobody to ignore the temptation soaked air…the forced encounter of us happened as I hopped out of the shop alarming everyone including S… she said let it mellow down… I knew if it is the same rain I heard of… she is not going to mellow down either she would be there or she would cease to exist… there isn’t any way between… I relate to her more than anything… so much like me… and so S joined… she could also not hold herself… (they say birthdates matter) … the rain washed us along with her dearest friend Bangalore… we performed our first rain dance together on this day on the high way called Bellary road to convey our regards to the dearest Bangalore…
This first rain bonded me to Bangalore as it bonded me with S… both the bonds are for life. I still feel the wetness and aroma of this first rain in my heart… the taste of those raindrops… the memories of the cold wave traveling through my drenched body with each encounter of even the slowest stroke of wind still gives me goose pimples… this first rain changed my life as it added the first dash of romance in my life… the very romantic me strolled her toddler steps on the Bellary road of Bangalore… the never ending romance with self in the company of Bangalore’s air, earth and S
