Wednesday, June 04, 2008

After the rain

It rained yesterday. While going home, in the bus, I sat watching the windowpanes blurred by the splattering raindrops, and it made me happy, like always.

The rains, however, also brought about too many difficulties -- clogged drains, flooded roads, traffic jams, power cuts, slushy pavements, and much chaos in general.

I somehow dodged the troubles and reached home safe. But, of course, when I reached home the electricity was out. On another day, I might have cursed badly. Yesterday, however, I managed to keep my outrage at bay, and lit the candle that was lying unused by my bedside for far too long. And I contemplated, later in the evening when I lay in my bed reading by the flickering flame, that this was indeed a fine evening, that the power cut was quite tolerable, that the crawling lines of printed black words in the yellow light looked pretty beautiful, that the shadows in the wall looked dreamlike and mysterious, that there seemed nothing amiss at all.

And, then the lights came. Everything suddenly came to life. The small flickering candle-light started looking inadequate and my interest in the book started waning. Finally, I snuffed out the candle, shut the book, and opened the laptop.

By the time I finally closed the laptop I realized, much to my chagrin, it was already quite late and I had just wasted away my evening.

6 comments:

Meghna said...

You didn't waste your evening, pranab, as you've come up with such a beautiful writing on a rainy day. Thanks for sharing. You showed us how you converted an otherwise dull rainy day into a tolerable pleasant day!

Anonymous said...

A normal rainy evening with no electricity never looked so beautiful to me. For a moment I hated inverters, missing the candle :-). Very nicely written.
Parul

pranabk said...

Meghna: Thanks! Most of my days are dull; so I need to keep trying to overcome those days with a bit of imagination.

Parul: Thanks for your comment! Well, the candle light looks beautiful, but only occasionally, or specially on a rainy evening. I don't think I'll be able to pass all my evenings reading by the candle.

Trinath Gaduparthi said...

"..the crawling lines of printed black words in the yellow light looked pretty beautiful, that the shadows in the wall looked dreamlike and mysterious, that there seemed nothing amiss at all."

"The small flickering candle-light started looking inadequate and my interest in the

book started waning..."

If I had a radar which would beep when a great line is written then it would beep twice in this post , and that would be at the above two lines.

Some how the line " small flickering candle started looking inadequate.." translates to the fleeting moment of joy or pain. Inadequacy of our hope or the puny nature of our stories, when exposed to the whole world through sudden light. There is a magic here , probably crafted but what the hell ! It is just flowing .

pranabk said...

Musings...: Thank you! You were generous enough with your words. I'm happy to know that these lines could induce some feelings in you; I wasn't really aware that they could be interpreted thus. But, of course, I'm more happy now, after your poetic interpretation.

G Shrivastava said...

How about a post on "During the rains"? Or anything else for that matter...;-)