A Bottle Full
After days of dry monsoons
the clouds finally decided
to emerge out of their patience.
Giant droplets had
begun to paint the dry earth
of the courtyard in fragrant patches.
Everything was getting washed,
looking all new; thirsty nature
was seeping into a cool sigh of relief.
The tin canopy of the verandah
rattled with a staccato drumming,
water streaming down its folds
in dancing parallel lines, framed
by the old wooden doorway
swaying this way and that
with the breeze through the trees
to the tune of the tin roof with
the flash and boom of the thunder.
The rich aroma of ginger-pepper tea
brewing in the next door’s kitchen,
unhesitantly fusing with the petrichor
made me waft back through the years.
Those old, unhurried Hindi film songs
on the radio, with my mother
humming along as she cooked.
Just then, the neighbours’ kid,
must’ve been five or six;
wobbled out barefeet into the rain,
a rainbow umbrella in one little hand
and clutching something else
in the other with great care.
It was a little glass bottle.
With much concentration,
she undid the cork and kept the bottle
on the driveway tile, under the rain.
With the best patience a toddler can muster,
squatting down next to her precious glassware,
waiting for the rain to fill it up, she looked like
a bright bobbing flower in the grey twilight,
a little pause of innocent colours
as one tired season ushered in the new one.
The bottle now full, focusing gingerly, with
her little tongue out, she put the cork back in
And ran back inside, shouting with excitement-
‘Maa!’
I heard a faint sneeze and sniffle in reply.
And then in the most joyous of voices I hear-
“See, I got you a bottle full of your favourite rain!”
-------------------------
Kids, every now and then, do the most endearing inexplicables;
things adults wonder about reasons for while the kids just do it
simply for the sheer unadulterated joy of it!
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Comments
Hi Sambit, I was ecstatic when my little boy gave me a heart shaped chicken nugget, hahaha.....This is so beautifully and tenderly written, the detail is fantastic and your right kids do the most wonderful of things at times. They don't even realise how much it makes our hearts melt.....but it does :D
Brilliant
Lorna xxx
That must have felt absolutely precious!! :-)
Shukriya so very much Lorna for such a generous and beautifully personal review of my simple words. I am a single guy so I can only imagine the emotions parents feel. But I am really humbled to learn that despite this being completely imaginary, you were able to find a real life parallel in it.
Sincerely appreciated! :-)
With a gift for those closely observed details, you build up a vividly rendered scenario which comes to such a charmingly tender fruition.
Simply a joy to read!
J ;)
Shukriya so very much Jason. Sincerely appreciated! :-)
what wonderful imagery linda
Shukriya Linda! :-)