MIDNIGHT DELUGE by Shalini Yadav

MIDNIGHT DELUGE

Dr Shalini Yadav

Through torrential rain, I ventured out to meet a friend, underestimated by the gentle downpour that later threatened to submerge the city. While savouring Biryani, Dal Tadka with Chapati and Boondi Raita, we exhilaratingly talked about music to literature, Bandni and Lehriya of North to Pochampalli and Kanjivaram Silk of South, sarees to formals, jhumkas to necklaces, extending it to family, relatives, and dreams and forgot that rain was showing its color to Pink city.

In those overwhelming and impulsive moments of expressiveness with individualism, we boarded on a journey for the ideal Selfie. With phones poised with various angles and attitudes for poses perfected, and our laughter echoed through the air. The hotel manager, a gracious photographer, joined our creative crusade, capturing our camaraderie.

Embracing the dreamlike magic of Snapchat's filters, refining our smiles, concealing our imperfections such as obesity and age, flaunting our jhumkas, shrug and dupatta, we finally curated a visual masterpiece. After a delightful fuss of clicks and critiques, our persistence paid off and a single, sublime snapshot emerged freezing a fleeting moment and witnessing our shared delight. Ah! Ritual of last minute, sweetheart Selfie had made us completely lost and carefree about outside weather.

The roads, rowdy rivers, stretched out before me like a dare while coming back home. Traffic jams, a tangled mess of brace and hindrance, held my body captive yet my soul was free. Water, a relentless foe, according to my autowalah, lapped at the auto’ wheels, frightening to gulp us both.

Although I felt alive amidst the tempest, the quivers coursing through my veins like adrenaline rush. A dose of happiness with splash of water, though mosquitoes, the tiny winged demons were sucking my sweet blood, dancing and feasting on my skin, yet the tryst with friend was worth it. 

On the other hand, I could feel the pain of autowalah, as the auto, a fragile vessel was battling hard with its engine sputtering, dying and reviving like Hamlet, to do or not to do. Meanwhile, a truck with an impatient driver and a bus crossed us sprewing dirty water to soak our respect but in that dark hour, it was a different kind of sovereignty that made me laugh wild matching the thunder in the sky.

For in that moment, when the auto, a recalcitrant beast, refused to be back to life and my family and friend worried with fears, waiting for me to reach home, I, the thrill-seeker, felt unshackled from the monotony of life. The rain was like music to the flooded roads and me added more to it.

Finally, I reached home, bedraggled, exhausted, and rejuvenated after the adventurous journey. My daughter enveloped me in warm embrace, but I just smiled, for I knew that I had lived, truly lived in that moment. And as I slept, my heart knew that I had fulfilled a deep longing, scratched an itch, checked off an item of bucket list of my soul. Blissful I slumbered, the pitter-patter of rain, a gentle lullaby, reaching my ears from window, serenading me into that late hour of the night.

(Dr. Shalini Yadav is a Professor, Poet, Writer and Columnist hailing from Jaipur, Rajasthan.)