The rain-lover! He loves it when it rains and he hates it when it stops! That evening, it was raining and he was feeling good! As he was coming straight from the office, he had his black suit, tie on and they were all getting wet by the fringe rain drops falling on them. But the rain-lover was feeling great!

While he was walking slowly by the pavement, he heard from his back, ‘Sir, Ap Credit Card use karte hain kya? (Do you use credit cards?). The rain-lover, touched with an edgy irritation, looked back and saw a thin guy standing right behind him with an old umbrella!

The first thing the rain-lover noticed about him was the color of the umbrella; it’s too old to be black anymore! It was one of those types which you keep for years, use both in rain and heat, just in case you need it (if at all)! Under that old umbrella, it was a 21/22 years old guy; dressed in simple trouser and shirt… the lower part shirt was put inside the black trouser. The shirt was old and the trouser was new, evident that he doesn’t have the habit (or capacity) to dress up smartly. Moreover, the belt he was wearing, its locket was saying that it was actually bought from the side walking vendor, a ‘cheap’ one!

Before the rain-lover could observe the guy properly, the guy repeated his question, ‘Sir. Do you use credit cards?’ He replied, ‘Yeah, I do. Why?’

‘Actually, I’ve a great scheme!’ he boy replied.

Being a part of the corporate, our rain-lover was well aware about all these airy promotional schemes and without any hint of hesitation, said straight on the boy’s face, ‘Oh! I don’t need it!’

The boy’s eyes were till now fixed at the rain-lover, and the moment he heard the negative reply, his eyes were depressed. Yet, he tried a bit more, ‘Actually, this scheme is really fantastic! It’ll help you in…..’ While he was trying so heard, our rain-lover could make out that the guy had lost all his hope, and was just trying to carry a formal assuring dialogue on, which, even he also knew that, will end with just another cold SORRY!

The rain-lover brought an icy smile in his eyes and said, ‘Boy, I don’t need it.’ ‘Oh!’ was all that the guy could utter and, with a lowered head, tried to leave the place. His shoulders were dropped, and our rain-lover could see that his black trouser, perhaps the only new thing, was having small white spots at the back. Evidently, the spots came out of the watery mud coming out from the street through his legs!

God knows what happened with the rain-lover. He raised his voice, ‘Hey, listen….’ The boy looked back with a smile, a smile that had a lot of hope! The rain-lover approached him, smiled, gently put the umbrella away, put his right hand over the guy’s shoulder and dragged, ‘Kitna kaam karega? Chal yaar, khana khate hain!’  (How much will you work mate. Let’s eat something!) The rain-lover could make out that the guy was too shocked to say yes or no, he tried to smile… smile didn’t come out, only a gasp of air came out with an unpracticed gesture!

The rain-lover was holding his hand tightly, and straight entered into the Subway restaurant. The guy’s eyes were so big, it was clear that perhaps it was the first time he had entered there… They took a table. The guy wasn’t saying anything, the rain-lover was talking. After 5 minutes, the rain-lover realised that he had shocked the guy so hard that he can’t speak now, so he cracked a joke. Though the joke wasn’t that great one, still the shock inside and the uneasy atmosphere outside made the guy laugh really loud. Eyes turned back from the tables nearby, those eyes changed their expressions, the guy noticed those expressions and shrunk, the rain-lover noticed that and cracked another joke! The guy was having a gentle smile now! He also cracked another joke. Then the guy said, ‘You want to watch something, I’ll show you something really nice!’ He put his hand inside the pocket, brought out a pack of playing cards and went on showing one after another magic tricks! He was so very good at that the amused rain-lover went on watching… he could see it all in his face, the eyes of a guy who came from small town to the city with a dream to be a successful man, to support his family, to touch his dreams, the guy who is a fighter, who is fighting and fighting, he could see the pain, the sweat, the rare achievement’s pride, the burden, the cost cutting walks, the cost cutting attire, the cost cutting meals, the cost cutting life! He was seeing a fighter who knows only one word as a motto of his life - Fight!!!

The fighter was the magician then, happily showing tricks! What a rarely beautiful smile he had on his face! After one beautiful trick, the boy looked up and heard 3-4 people from nearby tables clapping! He shined another diamond smile! The rain-lover went on watching. The food came, the guy was so careful about unwrapping it, the care he was giving even to the tissue paper was something really noticeable! He went ahead with his careful gesture and a careless smile!!!

After the food, they smiled and said good night to each other… the rain-lover was walking happily under the rain; suddenly he was touched on his shoulder from someone behind. He looked back and saw the guy breathing heavily, he must have ran a bit to catch him… The rain lover asked, ‘What?’ The guy smiled and hugged him tightly… The rain lover also hugged him, patted on his shoulder. His heart was so full inside the arms of a fighter, under the old umbrella held by the fighter!!! He was a born rain-lover, but this time, for a change, he loved to be under an umbrella. After all, it was a Fighter’s Umbrella!

DEAR FRIENDS, ARE WE TOO TIED UP? WHERE ARE WE RUSHING TOWARDS? I BELIEVE, WE’RE INSIDE AN ENDLESS CHAIN. SO THE RAIN-LOVER PREFERED TO PAUSE, LOOK AROUND AND TO SAY ‘HI’ TO THE ANGELS AROUND! MY FRIEND, DO YOU ALSO…..?

It was early winter morning….. 25th December, a long way back. My friend Bhaskar had arranged a picnic on that day for all his tuition students and had invited me also to join them. I went to his house early in the morning. There were all the boys and girls (well, beautiful girls) standing there in front of his house and Bhaskar was busy in monitoring the preparation part before getting into the big stylish tourist bus. I asked, “Hey Bhaskar, so what’s the situation?” He was happy, “Hey Ani, you came…. Great! Get into the bus.” Everybody got up, I followed them and found that there’s no space for me there! Some odd 52-55 young people had already occupied the entire space!

So I went and sat behind the driver. I saw an aged person there sitting at my left and looking beyond the window of the bus! It’s better not to talk about his dress, just that he had something on him to hide his private places! I touched my wind cheater and thought how cold he must be feeling in this cold December morning! It was tough for me to make out the reason behind his stay in our bus! Who was he? I looked back at Bhaskar with eyes full of questions and he got the question! His hand movements told me that the aged person was the cook who was hired to prepare the meal for the picnicking folk!

The bus reached the tourist garden, and it was awesome out there! It was Bhaskar’s emotional blackmailing that compelled me to be there, else in those days, I used to hate crowd. Moreover, the one close person that I had in that group was Bhaskar and he was in (newly arisen) love, which meant he would be hooked and booked for the whole day! What else could I do except getting bored? So I thought of doing something that I love doing… cooking!

When everyone was enjoying here and there, I silently went to the aged cook and smiled at him… he smiled back. He had a teenage boy around him who had already started cutting the potato while the aged man was trying to make fire! I smiled at the boy and he also smiled back. I sat on the grass, seized one potato, started washing it… the boy found it funny and smiled! I winked and asked, “What’s your name?” He smartly replied, “Prashata!” I smiled and asked again, “So what do you do?” His smile was unstoppable, “Generally I study, but on these occasions I help my father”. He looked up to the aged man who obviously was his father! The man smiled back at me. I could see hardly any one of his teeth was white and rightly in shape! The hairs all over his body were up due to the cold wind. I said, “Isn’t it cold?” He smiled, “Oh it’s nothing. Just now I will make fire and it’ll be so hot that you will open your warm clothes even.” The little boy found that extremely funny and started laughing. When I looked at him, he found it super funny and went rolling… the potato from his hand also went rolling. At this, his father gave his a one-second-behave-yourself look and he managed himself! Yet, from the pass ways of his lips and teeth, shrill smirks went on hissing out!

To give him a pause, I asked, “So… which class do you study in Prashanta?” He blew his nose for a while, wiped it with the flat palm, rubbed the palm against his half pant, took a sound air in and said, “I’m at class VII.” No doubt he was proud about it, so I encouraged him a bit…. I opened my mouth in exclamation and with big eyes said, “AWW!! VII! My god! I’m older than you and I’m still at Class V!!” He looked at his father, who was smiling too and said, “Hehe!! Such a big long boy you are and still you are at V? hehe!! You must have flunked many a times!” I was like, “Yeah, didn’t you ever flunk?” He was mega proud this time, “Uhmm… I rank 6th in the class. In this midterm result, I might get 5th rank!” I was impressed and looked at his father… his eyes were saying that he was observing the best angle on earth.. such was the sense of admiration! 

I addressed him, “So your son is bright!” He smiled in reply. I again asked, “But why do you take him to work? This will spoil his study!” Though the question was to the father, still the son replied, “No it won’t… Father says we need to know everything. I feel good in learning these. Plus you know we will get lot of money from this and this New Year will be great!”  I asked, “How?” Now the man replied, “A Harmonium!” I asked like “What? What has harmonium to do with New Year?”

Now the boy’s laughter was unstoppable! He raised his fingers at me and mocked, “Now I know why you flunked in the papers! Listen I tell you… Last year, my father gave me a bi-cycle to go to school! And this time we’ve planned to go give my sister a surprise! She sings so sweetly. So we’ve saved money and will give her a harmonium this time!  It’ll so much of fun. Right?” His father smiled and he also smiled. Both of them concentrated in their works with gentle smile painted in their faces!

This little boy just said, “We’ve planned to go give my sister a surprise!” WE? What a sense of responsibility? They gift each other each year! They? Who hardly can afford clothes! They?! I truly realised how I really went on flunking and this little angel went on soaring!!!

ANGELS ARE EVERYWHERE! AM I TOO DEVILISH TO TOUCH THEM?!

THIS IS THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SPACE! I’LL BE GLAD IF YOU COMMENT UPON THE BEING OF MY BLOG ENTITY SO FAR! POSITIVE CRITICISM WILL BE HIGHLY APPRECIATED. THANQ, GOD BLESS YOU & ENJOY~

He was just thrashed by his aunty in that morning! Uff! Those were few tough blows that he had got. His forehead was paining…. With tears in the eyes, he, a 10 years old lame boy, was looking at the cows standing in front of his home! Calm cows, chewing the grass and lazily moving. No wonder, he was feeling jealous of those cows… these animals don’t have to study, don’t have to go to school, don’t have to face the thrashing of the aunty if they do the calculations wrong, they don’t even have to do any calculation, don’t even have to do much to get the food in time, don’t even have to do those things that they boy is forced to do. He was wondering how beautiful it could be if he was just any other animal than a human being.

He kept watching for long… suddenly, he saw a tiny bird roaming around the stairs. A blue little bird with pinkish yellow wings and dark black eyes! He kept watching the bird. Balancing its whole body on a pair of small, thin legs, the bird was jumping and bringing a soft noise out! It was such a beautiful bird. He kept himself motionless as any movement from his side could frighten the little creature and it might just fly away. The bird ran a quick eye around and kept looking a small plant by the edge of the stairs. It flew by its wings and reached the top of the plant, put its legs on the plant and slipped down. The boy found it funny and went on watching. The bird instantly got up and again tried to sit on the plant and again slipped down, again tried and again slipped down! This time, the bird reached the bottom of the plant and, with upturn eyes, went on observing the plant. The boy could see the sense of acute concentration in the eyes of the little bird! After a lot of poise, the bird speared its wings again, reached the top the plant, but didn’t put its legs on it… rather went on balancing itself in the air itself…. After a while, slowly, yet carefully, it put its legs on the plant and this time it didn’t slip! The plant bent rightward, yet, the bird survived! The boy was astonished! He felt like jumping, felt like clapping, felt like shouting, felt like hugging the winner … but stopped himself as that might frighten the little angel!

Instead, he took his pen and register and without realising what he was doing, went on drawing lines after lines on the white page… occasionally he would raise his head, watch the bird and again look down.. After a while, he wasn’t raising his head anymore… his strokes on the paper gained pace, gained strength and gained shape! It was some odd 30-40 minutes when he raised his head again and saw that the bird was no more there… but when he looked down to the page on his lap, he saw there were two unfolded wings, firm grip of little legs, sense of achievement in two black tiny eyes and a smiling flower! A sense of gladness touched his heart and made him soft! He wrote under the page, ‘I CAN DO IT’…

But within seconds he realised what a big blunder he had done! He ‘misused’ his studying register…. Gosh! If his aunty gets to see that, she would again thrash him… he was so scared. He nervously looked here and there holding the register tight in his hands and thought of hiding that! So he took out that sketched paper and buried it under the thick blanket of his bed, examined if he anyone could notice it… and after being convinced, he headed towards the pond!!

Two days passed in usual silence. He didn’t even remind himself of that sketch. But that day he came from school in the afternoon and saw all his family members sitting on the floor. Everybody was looking at him. He sensed that there was something really wrong in those looks. And it didn’t take long for him to identify what was wrong…. His father was holding the same piece of paper!!! He was hating everyone at that time, all the eyes had some mysterious expression which his young brain failed to decipher! His uncle broke the silence and asked with a deep voice, “Is it you who made this?” He didn’t know what to say… his elder sis grinned and said, “Guess who has found it!” He softly uttered, “Aunty?” Everybody nodded! God! Aunty! She will kill him now! His mother said, “She is waiting for you in that room!” He had his heart out on his mouth!

He went at the door ­­­­­­­­and kept on looking at his own feet only! He knew that's where world would end and he will be thrashed again! She asked, “Did you make that?” Gasp of tears broke free through his eyes and a voice struggled to come out from deep inside, “I’ll never do that!”

The aunty came closer to him and he closed his eyes! But what was it that he felt?… He felt himself inside her arms and felt her kiss on his shoulder!! Aunty said with smile, “See, I told you all that my son is a wonder! He is my wonder!”

He heard everyone smiling and when he looked back at them, all were clapping…. His father, mother, grandpa, grandma, elder sister, and uncle… all clapping and smiling… tears were unstoppable. His 6 years old brother ran to him and grasped his knees!! He hugged him and kissed… another round of applause! Then his uncle came closer to him, took him up on his shoulder and said, “I’ll finance my boy’s expenses… he’ll go to the art school… he will be an artist!” ARTIST! Did he hear rightly? Yes, ARTIST. Will he ever be an artist? And then the line came in his mind… “I CAN DO IT!!!”          

THE BOY HAS GROWN UP NOW AND STILL HE THINKS THAT THE 1^ST ONE WAS HIS BEST ONE… THE SENSE OF ACUTE BEAUTY WAS NEVER ACHIEVED IN ANY OF HIS OTHER PAINTINGS!~~ ENJOY