Dark nimbus clouds appeared in the sky. The Sun made a brief appearance giving an impression of a hesitant visitor. Then it’s enchanting game of hide-and- seeks along with the winds and the clouds started. At last the heavens opened and generously burst into tears. It is impossible to think of any life on earth without water and there would have been no life had there been no brooks and streams. We are an agrarian economy, entirely depending on water.
Claps of thunder sounded and streaks of lightning lit up the firmament. The wind and the rains had engaged in a merry dance causing havoc to the surroundings. Frogs made their appearance all of a sudden. The notes of their croaks went higher and higher as the water brought bliss to them. The Dracula-type mosquitoes merrily fed on our blood.
I opened the front door to watch the monsoon jazz of nature. I was wonder-struck with its fury of violent thunderstorm and forked lightning — Nature’s most magical and mesmerizing moments. The rain whistled in the wind; and streams of rain water merrily raced down the gutters. I saw the trees on our land bent this way and that; bravely holding on to their roots. But a huge tree was pulled out from the earth and knocked down on the ground to rot.
A senior citizen, standing next to me said: “That’s the first lesson that nature teaches. The rigid and unbending trees are pulled out and fall on the ground; the flexible and the adaptable live to grow taller and taller and stay firmly on the ground with its green leaves dancing in the breeze along with the birds and the bees, on every hill.”
I started linking his observation, regarding the trees to the rigid pride and flexible humility of human beings. Proud people who breakfast with the wealthy; lunch with the greedy and fall like the tree with shame. The humble and the flexible plant life is like the humble folks who adapt and adjust to any circumstances and live in peace and are more successful in life.
Host and guests from our homes fall in the grave and a new generation sneak a look at the passersby, through the windows of their ancestral house like the trees shedding their yellow leaves and shooting its new green foliage. They teach us to bend and provide cool shade of understanding others; not to break like the unbending proud trees.
Memory plays a big role in our life. It brings to mind a precious moment that occurred in the past. Yes, mind forgets nothing! My thoughts traveled back smoothly and effortlessly over the years going back, in those good old days: whenever there was an unusual delay of monsoon, our farmers would go in a procession with the statue of St. Anton singing: “Sant Anton paus gall, paus gall” (St. Anthony pour the rain, pour the rain). Often such prayers went up and blessings came down in the form of rain.
Thank God! The rains have finally come — Showers of relief from the sweltering spell of scorching heat. Rain fell non-stop like the non-stop Konkani ‘tiatro’ (drama). I enjoy the monsoon. I enter my comfortable room and play on my keyboard the song: “Raindrops keep falling on my head.”
