It had just started to drizzle. But I didn’t want to cancel my plans. I wanted to go and meet him. So I waited. I finished my lunch. I could see the house next to ours clearly, without any rain drops hindering the view. I dumped my notepad, pen and my new book, 'A Fine Balance' into my jhola and left.
The clouds harbingered the arrival of thick rains. I took a shuttle auto and headed towards the railway station. It again started raining a little, but stopped in a while. By the time I reached the station, around 200 m away, the rains had begun. I requested the autowala to take me near the station. But he explained the inconvenience he might have to face if he took that route. I considered his plight and decided to move on my feet.
I was thrilled to see something that I had just heard of but never seen for myself. My skin could not sense any kind of sensation due to cold drops of rain. But my eyes could sense the vision of those drops falling around 100 m from where I was. Not to complicate it any more, I could see rain falling on the opposite side but not where I was.
As if that was not thrilling enough, I could see another view where rain had stopped falling on the opposite side, moved a bit farther and in few seconds, even my skin could sense it. I really enjoyed it.
I started walking towards the station, picking up speed at each single step, in the haste of escaping the rains, avoiding getting wet and reach a shelter as soon as possible. But soon I had to face the unavoidable situation. It just started pouring cats and dogs and I had to run to reach the nearest shelter, a small open stall with a blue plastic sheet on top.
I hardly managed to fit my slim body in the thin strip of space available to stand. I wasn’t alone. There was another boy standing at the other corner, who wanted to go to Manekchowk (I knew that because he shouted to call an auto) but had to fit himself in the thin strip just as me. The stall owner was busy covering the traveling bags so that they could get good shelter and not get wet.
We could not avoid rains for more than a minute. The owner finished his packing and shouted at the boy, calling him by a rude, offending word, asking him to get lost from HIS shelter. The boy ran away in a flash of a second. I knew that next it would be my turn. He went past me, murmuring something to the boy. He then asked me to go away.
I respected his space and moved out thinking what I would do if I was in his place. I could not think much as the rains were hitting hard on my skin. I soon reached the next stall, with a blue plastic sheet, a small dhaba. I wasn’t alone again, but was feeling secured. There were many more passers like me who were trying to protect their heads. The space was enough for us to fit breadthwise but not heightwise. I was secure in a sense but uncomfortable in a way. I had to bend my back so as to reduce my height by around 2 feet to fit in the approximately 4 feet high stall. I had to maintain that posture for around 5 to 10 minutes. The rain fell at the same rate, maintaining the number of drops hitting a given surface in a given time. The height attained by a drop after hitting the ground was high enough to say that the rains were hitting hard :).
After a while, the rain reduced its rate a bit and the owner announced that he wanted to reduce the mass per unit area. In short, he asked us to leave the space as soon as possible. I wished I was returning home, a place which I could say was my permanent shelter, a place I could stay for a time enough to live my entire life, a place I could head towards with the drops of rain drenching me completely. My feet had become dirty due to the dirt carried up by the bouncing rain drops. I didn’t know how to clean them. But I saw my fellow shelter-takers cleaning theirs by the water that fell from the top of the blue plastic sheet. I tried to imitate them :).
The rain hadn’t stopped. But I could not wait there for long. So I took a 30 second long sprint and reached the station which was less than 100 m away. I bought the ticket, found my train and took a window seat.
The thing that I had been constantly thinking about throughout this short trip was that how do shelterless people feel in such a situation. The answer I have right now is, I don’t know. But am sure I will find an answer to it.
Am on my way to meet him and its still raining…..
The clouds harbingered the arrival of thick rains. I took a shuttle auto and headed towards the railway station. It again started raining a little, but stopped in a while. By the time I reached the station, around 200 m away, the rains had begun. I requested the autowala to take me near the station. But he explained the inconvenience he might have to face if he took that route. I considered his plight and decided to move on my feet.
I was thrilled to see something that I had just heard of but never seen for myself. My skin could not sense any kind of sensation due to cold drops of rain. But my eyes could sense the vision of those drops falling around 100 m from where I was. Not to complicate it any more, I could see rain falling on the opposite side but not where I was.
As if that was not thrilling enough, I could see another view where rain had stopped falling on the opposite side, moved a bit farther and in few seconds, even my skin could sense it. I really enjoyed it.
I started walking towards the station, picking up speed at each single step, in the haste of escaping the rains, avoiding getting wet and reach a shelter as soon as possible. But soon I had to face the unavoidable situation. It just started pouring cats and dogs and I had to run to reach the nearest shelter, a small open stall with a blue plastic sheet on top.
I hardly managed to fit my slim body in the thin strip of space available to stand. I wasn’t alone. There was another boy standing at the other corner, who wanted to go to Manekchowk (I knew that because he shouted to call an auto) but had to fit himself in the thin strip just as me. The stall owner was busy covering the traveling bags so that they could get good shelter and not get wet.
We could not avoid rains for more than a minute. The owner finished his packing and shouted at the boy, calling him by a rude, offending word, asking him to get lost from HIS shelter. The boy ran away in a flash of a second. I knew that next it would be my turn. He went past me, murmuring something to the boy. He then asked me to go away.
I respected his space and moved out thinking what I would do if I was in his place. I could not think much as the rains were hitting hard on my skin. I soon reached the next stall, with a blue plastic sheet, a small dhaba. I wasn’t alone again, but was feeling secured. There were many more passers like me who were trying to protect their heads. The space was enough for us to fit breadthwise but not heightwise. I was secure in a sense but uncomfortable in a way. I had to bend my back so as to reduce my height by around 2 feet to fit in the approximately 4 feet high stall. I had to maintain that posture for around 5 to 10 minutes. The rain fell at the same rate, maintaining the number of drops hitting a given surface in a given time. The height attained by a drop after hitting the ground was high enough to say that the rains were hitting hard :).
After a while, the rain reduced its rate a bit and the owner announced that he wanted to reduce the mass per unit area. In short, he asked us to leave the space as soon as possible. I wished I was returning home, a place which I could say was my permanent shelter, a place I could stay for a time enough to live my entire life, a place I could head towards with the drops of rain drenching me completely. My feet had become dirty due to the dirt carried up by the bouncing rain drops. I didn’t know how to clean them. But I saw my fellow shelter-takers cleaning theirs by the water that fell from the top of the blue plastic sheet. I tried to imitate them :).
The rain hadn’t stopped. But I could not wait there for long. So I took a 30 second long sprint and reached the station which was less than 100 m away. I bought the ticket, found my train and took a window seat.
The thing that I had been constantly thinking about throughout this short trip was that how do shelterless people feel in such a situation. The answer I have right now is, I don’t know. But am sure I will find an answer to it.
Am on my way to meet him and its still raining…..
