The alarm clock of the mobile started singing – ‘Kuch kar gujar ne ko Khun Chala, Khun Chala!’ The Rainlover woke up, silenced the phone, kept his eyes closed for a while, opened them again, saw his friends were in deep slumber. It was 5.30am - night for them! It was cool air caressing the morning – the Rainlover got caressed for some five minutes! And after ten minutes, he was ready for his walk.

The park just next to his building bears a deserted look. Except 3/4 aunties, tying out anti-weight campaign, and few odd 4/5 sikhs trying out some first hand Yoga on the grass, not many people crowd up the lonely park. But like each morning, ‘she’ was sitting at her place. This ‘she’ is very ‘particular’ a girl. Each morning, she keeps on sitting on a ‘particular’ bench at the ‘particular’ corner of this ‘particular’ park in a ‘particular’ pose. With her knees huddled up on the bench, she sits with her chin supported on the knees, hands hugging herself and eyes looking beyond things in front of her – she stays there for long. That morning also she was up to her ‘particular’ job – being ‘particular’ about everything that is ‘particular’ about her!

The Rainlover always feels a hitch inside him whensoever he seems something or someone being exceptional – it’s like, the girl was always ‘particular’ about her existence (at least in the park) and this being ‘particular’ always appeared weird to him. So the bottom-line is – there was a hitch inside the Rainlover and he wanted to solve that!

So after taking two rounds around the park, the Rainlover went straight to the bench, stared for a while and passed a gentle smile to the girl... this time, her utter-ignorance-about-the-surrounding broke and she also smiled back. The Rainlover chuckled, for a change. The girl cleared her throat and with a soft voice said, ‘It’s a beautiful morning, isn’t it?’ The booming Rainlover replied, ‘Indeed it’s a beautiful morning. But it’ll be awesome if you have a walk with me...’ Now that was a product of a month-long hitch, combined with an utter urge to break the ice and to initiative some sort of opening... the girl kept on smiling for a while and replied, ‘Sure!’

She got up from her bench, for the 1^st time, found her chappals and came forward. For next two minutes none was talking. So the Rainlover started, ‘Sorry to ask, but why do you always sit like that? I mean, always...’ The girls laughed out, ‘Actually, I want to be seated like that always, but it’s only the morning when I get time. So... ’ The Rainlover asked, ‘Oh! Anything ‘particular’ about that ‘particular’ pose..?’ She replied, ‘Nothing much, I just feel myself with myself while I hug myself for long time... rest of the day, you know how it is....’ The Rainlover quickly jumped into it, ‘No, I don’t know. But you bet, I definitely want to know...’ She passed another sweet smile, ‘Rest of the day is mainly for others, you know! Like, I’ll go back, and I’ll be taken over my caring mom who worries her life on my falling health, then father with overthrowing comments behind his newspaper, then with friends who find any damn thing to be a breaking news, then with professors who think this generation is hopeless, then friends again, family again and at night, it’s insomnia!’ The Rainlover said, ‘Hmm.. but an insomniac you can be with you. Isn’t it?’ She was frank, ‘No yaar, my stupid boyfriend doesn’t let me be of myself then... call charges are so low these days.’

The Rainlover was laughing while the girl suddenly asked, ‘Do you take a bath so early in the morning...?’ The Rainlover was shocked, ‘No I don’t. Why?’ The girl looked away, ‘No, I’ve seen your hairs to be wet always...’ (So she did see, oh yes!) The Rainlover pretended to be shy, ‘No, actually they look pathetic when they are dry... so I wet them while washing my face!’ The girl said, ‘Oh I see...’

From then on the talks traveled from the reasons of insomnia, through necessity of reading literature, through the age of poetic license to the creed to make individual mark. It was that time when Lipsha (oh yes, that’s her name) asked – ‘What do you do?’ The Rainlover didn’t miss the chance to sound goofy, ‘I just live... you?’ She replied, ‘I just .... Well, don’t you wanna meet me anymore that you’re in a hurry to know everything in a single day?’ (okay, that’s called girlish license, it’s legitimate for them to hold any answer to themselves for however long a duration they choose to!) The Rainlover just smiled and Lipsha said, ‘I’ve to go now...’ The Rainlover said, ‘Yeah, I’ve to go as well... take care and do sleep sometimes! Bye bye!’ Lipsha just waved at him with a smile, went few steps ahead, turned back and asked, ‘What took you one-whole-month to break the ice?’ The Rainlover smiled, ‘I just .... (then as if he had discovered something) Well, don’t you wanna meet me anymore that you’re in a hurry to know everything in a single day?’ The girl smiled and started walking... The Rainlover came out of the park, he was smiling – after all, the hitch wasn’t itchy anymore...

 MORAL OF THE ‘STORY’ – OH YES! WHO KNOWS?!  

Dadar railway station means lot of people, in a rush! That evening, the Rainlover thought of staying back in the station for a while and to have a look at the people around. ‘People’ is always the best subject for the Rainlover. He just loves watching people! So there was he standing nonchalantly with flood of people around him rushing towards their respective destinations. There were men with their office bags, women with their vanity bags, students with their college bags, girls with their side bags, mothers with children’s bags, children with tiffin bags and beggars with their begging bags!

Suddenly the Rainlover’s eyes feel on a man with his office bag. The most attractive part of the man was his trembling legs. His legs were beyond his control and he was literally been tossed here and there by the rushing crowd around him. The Rainlover could realise that soon this person would fall down. So he reached for him, seized him and huddled him back to the edge of the flyover railings. The man was staring at the Rainlover’s face. But it seemed as if he was smiling within, his face wasn’t, but his small eyes were smiling for sure. The Rainlover could sense the smell the whisky coming out of his mouth and he loves just drunk people. They are so damn honest and so damn cute!

The person asked, ‘Main geer raha tha kya?’(Was I falling down?)

The Rainlover smiled, ‘Almost.’

The man took the Rainlover’s hands in his hands and said, ‘Thank you my brother, actually to tell you a secret, I’m drunk.’ Then he smiled. What a ‘secret’ indeed. The Rainlover asked, ‘Which brand of Whisky?’ The man looked at his face for a while, reflected a nice sense of admiration, and said, ‘McDowell’s! How do you know?’ The Rainlover smiled and asked, ‘What’s your good name?’ The man cornered his eyes, whispered as if he was sharing another secret, ‘I’m Shubhas Gokhlekar, territory sales manager of P&G! Wait I show you.’ Shubhas-ji went ahead to search something inside his leather office bag. The Rainlover realised what he was trying to show, so he said, ‘Oh, there’s no need of a visiting card. I trust you.’

With a sudden effect, Shubhas-ji stopped searching, kept staring at the Rainlover with his right arm still inside his bag and said, ‘Trust? You trust me? My brother trusts me. That’s a great thing my brother. Tell me, what can I do for you? I owe you a dinner now. You’ve to come with me... I insist... You have to’ The Rainlover was excited inside; he knew the fun has began. This person will gradually become cuter as he will talk. By that time, Shubhas-ji had started pulling the Rainlover’s hands insisting him to come for a dinner. The Rainlover happily held the man’s shoulder and said, ‘Let’s go!’

Both of them came out of the station and entered into a medium-sized restaurant. Shubhas-ji took 15 minutes to scan the menu and ordered almost everything possible on chicken... then he asked the Rainlover, ‘Where do you stay in Mumbai?’ The Rainlover said, ‘I’m from Delhi, came here for few days.. staying at Thane.’ The man almost shouted, ‘Thane? My god! I also stay there! You’ve to come to my place.’ (Now that’s what McDowell is famous for, turning a territory sales manager of an MNC into a cute little boy whose generosity, admiration, openness, insanity and cuteness intensify with each second passed in any conversation.) He went on, ‘See, I’m drunk, but that doesn’t mean I’m insane.’ (Now that’s called self-awareness) ‘... I can look into your eyes and can feel how nice a humane you are!’ (Insight into character is directly proportional to the drops of alcohol – economics, is it?) The Rainlover smiled, ‘Sure, why not?’

Both of them had food and Shubhas-ji was doing most of the talking about Mumbai and the Mumbai-life. The Rainlover was listening to all those with attention, because he knew that the best way to know anything is to listen to drunkard associated with that. All of a sudden, the man got aware of something, checked his wrist-watch and said, ‘We’ve to leave.’ The Rainlover was surprised, ‘Of course we will leave, but anything serious?’ The man said, ‘You know, I’ve a wife. She has got an obscure paralysis. She can’t move up from her bed by herself. The maid leaves at 7.30 and I come back from office at 8. Then we talk. She says, this is the best part of her day. So...’

The Rainlover interrupted, ‘Then why didn’t you go back home? Why did you drink?’

Shubhas-ji was silent for a while and then bringing a deep sigh out, said, ‘Today was very hectic. Sometimes, you know, this body also needs something. I also want to... but my wife, you know, she is just...’

The Rainlover quickly reached for Shubhas-ji’s hand and said, ‘You know, I understand. But you are a good husband.’ Subhas-ji’s eyes were red. He said, ‘Let’s go!’

Then in a relatively less-crowded train, sitting by the window sit, the Rainlover was looking at a man whose sense of being the husband of a helpless woman was obvious... rest of the journey, he was talking about how beautiful his wife used to be, how they fell in love as teens, how much they love each other, how both of them fought with their respective families to be with each-other, how they left their homes, how they built a small nest for themselves, how they used to enjoy their lives, then how their lives were shattered by the paralysing news of his wife’s paralysis and how from then on, they are living a one-way-traffic life... but in the whole course, they’ve never spent even a single evening as singles...

When they got down from the train, Subhas-ji didn’t seem to be drunk anymore (McDowell’s has lost it against a dutiful husband). They took an auto-rickshaw and reached in front of Shubhas-ji’s house - he was in a hurry... he went to the gate, waved at the Rainlover... but the shouted, ‘But you didn’t tell me why you are late and why you got drunk...’ Shubhas-ji halted, moved his head a bit, came back and uttered, ‘If I’m not occasionally careless, but wife will think herself to be a burden on me! I give her chances to be angry!!! She looks great in anger...’ He smiled and went inside... the Rainlover started walking back, he was smiling! He was happy, he has to be ... because he had just met a man who taught him – if managed nicely, then dutifulness and recklessness are not contradictory! And there came the rain, by then...  

Juhu beach! The Rainlover was walking by the sea... with each wave hitting shore, his mind was dancing with an unparallel ecstasy! There were couples everywhere, exhibiting the intensity of their love for each other through the tightness of their grips around each others’ waist! In most of the cases, eyes were doing most of the talking, but in some cases, lips were talking, not through words, but through kisses! The Rainlover was alone, and the waves on the sea were more enchanting to him than the waves of kisses around! So he concentrated on the never-ending waves breaking into white foams. He sat down, spread his long legs over the sands and supported his back on his bag. If the sound of the waves weren’t dominating, then people around him could hear him whistling Winds of Change by Scorpions! Suddenly, the pushed-forth air from the Rainlover’s lips was halted by a gentle touch on his shoulder!

The Rainlover looked back and the ‘obvious proprietor of the beach’ was standing there – a beggar boy! With his all possible teeth out he had his right palm stretched forward. Now the Rainlover had two questions – 1. Why was this beggar boy smiling? (Smile isn’t a good tool to earn uh-ah sympathy!) 2. What’s written on the Rainlover’s forehead that brings most of the beggars to him? Since none of these questions were to be answered by this boy, the Rainlover reached for his hands, caught them and dragged him nearer. Now this boy was weird! Firstly, he didn’t appear to be too helpless to beg, and secondly, he appeared too friendly to be ignored by just little alms. So he came closer to the Rainlover without any hint of resistance, rather he gladly sat close to him.

The Rainlover asked, ‘Naam kya hai tera?’ (What’s your name?) The boy covered his teeth behind lips and coldly uttered, ‘First thing first, I will sit here and talk with you only if you promise to give me some money. Khalipili masti nehin karneka!’ (business-minded indeed) The Rainlover laughed and told himself – ‘Welcome to Mumbai!’ ‘Yes boss! I will buy you lunch.’ (Because the Rainlover never gives money to the beggars, only food.) The guy nodded and said, ‘I’m Sunil.’ The Rainlover asked, ‘So Sunil Babu, what do you do apart from begging?’

The boy lolled back on the sands and uttered while keeping his eyes straight on the sky, ‘Actually I work in a plumber mill!’ he was smiling... ‘What?’ the Rainlover was shocked, ‘Do they pay you?’ The boy was grinning this time, for a change, ‘Yes, they pay me well.’ ‘How much?’ the Rainlover asked. ‘Rs 40/. Per day!’ he was beaming! ‘Really? That’s Rs 1200/. per month! Why do you beg then?’

Sunil got up, ran to the edge of water, danced few steps, gave few mock poses for no-camera and came back... then he uttered, ‘Begging is fun!’ The Rainlover asked, ‘What do you mean?’ The boy again smiled, looked away, the Rainlover followed his eyes - they were pointed towards a busy (eerm, cozy) couple. He hadn’t noticed that till then, but the couple had got intimate by that time... Looking at them, it seemed as if the guy was posted in Iraq for last 20 months and finally he had met his girlfriend in a cozy-lonely-candle-lit-warm bedroom! The sight was hilariously funny! Sunil winked at the Rainlover and ran straight to the couple. The Rainlover couldn’t control the temptation of looking at what goes next, so he kept staring – Sunil reached the couple’s virtual bedroom and ‘knocked’ on the boy’s (weaving) ass. Irritated (justifiably), the boy looked back and saw our little-champ Sunil with his palm stretched forward. For few seconds, the irritation (read, frustration) on their faces (mainly on the boy’s face) was worth watching! Anyhow, the guy sent his right arm inside his pocket and fetched a Rs 50/. note! Now the ‘call of nature’ (after all, Vedas call lust as ‘Nature’) was so loud that the boy didn’t even bother to fetch another note of lesser value (by any standard, Rs 50/. is too high a generosity to be shown to a beggar).

Sunil came casually back to the Rainlover and asked, ‘How was the timing?’ ‘Perfect -’ the Rainlover couldn’t help but admiring Sunil’s style. But the question was still there and the Rainlover repeated that, ‘Sunil, if you have sources of stable earning, then why do you beg... Sunil?’ (The last ‘Sunil’ was added with a thought that this word might give Sunil a feeling that he wasn’t talking to a total stranger and he could share this deep secret.) Sunil stopped his smile, thought for a while, and then said, ‘Come with me.’

The Rainlover followed Sunil, they reached a place from where they could see 3 little beggar girls sitting on the sands! Sunil said, ‘Four months back, I was like them. I was with them. And I know how tough it is for street-children like us to get a job. So when I finally got one, I promised them that I will come occasionally to see them. So I come here once or twice a week, stay with them, play with them, beg with them, eat with them and then give them the money I get out of the day-long begging!’

The Rainlover was speechless. He couldn’t just move, forget about talking. To change the topic, smart Sunil said, ‘Hello! What about the lunch?’ The Rainlover smiled, took him to a beach-stall, saw his having food, listened to his stories and jokes, bought him some extra food for those 3 girls and when it was time to say good bye, the Rainlover hugged him!!! Little Sunil probably didn’t understand the reason, usage or meaning of a hug, so when the hug was over, he came up with an un-thought-after question, ‘Toh ek bhikhari se milke kaisa laga?’ (So how was it to meet a beggar?) The Rainlover smiled, ‘Chinta maat kar, hum sab bhikhari hain.’ (Don’t worry, we all are beggars!) Just that, Sunil is the RICHEST among all of us! 

SUNIL IS NOW ON THE WALLPAPER OF THE RAINLOVER’S MOBILE. SO EVERYTIME THE RAINLOVER BRINGS OUT HIS PHONE, SMILING SUNIL TELLS HIM ONLY ONE THING – ‘LEARN FROM ME, THE ART OF LIVING!!!’  

It was late! The Rainlover never wears a watch, but if he would have, he could see that it was around 10 pm. He had gone to see a friend after office and there after a lot of heated revealing he had boozed quite a bit! Mr. Vodka was creating a nice uproar in his stupid brain. He stood still and saw his friend entering into her house waving with a sweet smile at him. Once she disappeared behind the door of her house, the Rainlover looked down and started walking. He was holding an office file in his hand... The moment he left the main road and took the quiet road, his beloved rain rushed to him. The Rainlover looked up and his face felt the heavy sweet drops of rain – he was happy again!

Rain was wetting his suit, but who cares? He saw that the office file was getting wet, but who cares? He realised that his cell-phone inside his right pocket is getting wet, but who cares? He realised that his home is some 30 minutes away from the place he was standing, but who cares? Well, when sense of betrayal, Vodka and Rain meet each other – this is what happens! So he happily walked along cherishing the freshness of getting drenched.

Thousands of thoughts were mounting in the Rainlover’s head. But he was happy – happy to know the truth that relations are like ‘classical example of emotional hogwash!’ But at that point of time, he had better things to do... he stopped and felt the raindrops falling on his head, getting lost inside his hairs, then combining and making it a small stream, those small streams were struggling their ways through the hairs, then reaching his long neck and then getting lost inside his body – he uttered, ‘Absorber’  - yeah, that’s what we’ve become. The funny part is, be it vodka, be in rain or pain – we absorb every-damn-thing!

While enjoying his ‘walk under the bliss’, the Rainlover’s eyes fell on a night guard who was sitting at the corner of a building. He was smoking a beedi and was singing some unknown tune to himself. The Rainlover told himself, ‘So, I’m not in my senses, so a senseless person can do anything he feels like... because in the end, it’s all nonsense.’ He went towards the night guard and stood in front of him. The night guard stopped his tune and looked up. The Rainlover stretched his right arm and gave a wide smile. For a second the night guard was taken aback, but the surprise went away instantly and a smile came out. Wow, what a beautiful smile... unshaved face, uncombed head, untreated eyes, unnourished teeth – yet, what a beautiful smile that was. The Rainlover still had his right arm stretched forward, but the night guard had no clue what to do with that – with a slight hesitation, he also brought his left arm forward and the Rainlover touched his arm – warm human arm! The Rainlover asked, ‘Please keep singing.’ The aged man gave a shy smile and started, ‘Tharo ek ehsaan hai mujhpe – tharo dard ajbhi marta hai mujhe’ (You’ve done a favor to me – the pain given by you still kills me) – wah! What a line that was! The Rainlover sat with him for almost 20 minutes and listened to many songs.

Finally, it was the time to say goodbye... the Rainlover said, ‘Kaka, ek baat batao mujhe... eh rishta kya hota hai?’ (Uncle, tell me one thing – what is relationship?) The night guard smiled and said, ‘Khud se daarke auro ke aad pe chupneka tadap hota hai’ – (it’s a desire to hide under other’s shelter once you’re scared of yourself)! The Rainlover smiled and jumped under the rain.... The rain has never been so educating before!

FRINEDS, JUST A THOUGHT : IN A PLIGHT TO DO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING, WE SHOULD SAVE SOME TIME FOR 'NOTHING'. BECAUSE, IN THE END, WHEN WE LOOK BACK, WE CANT REMEMBER 'EVERYTHING', THE FUN IS, WE REMEMBER 'NOTHING'!