A Rainy Day

He would say “Now! With every falling drop, the dark clouds will get emptier and the sky clearer!”
Ronny did like the rain!
Once hail stones came crumbling down. One of them, the size of a football, came crushing down on the mango tree just at the front of the house. An old branch came crushing down with it. The sound of the hail storms beating on the tin roof deafened her. She closed her eyes; her fingers clasped her ears tight.
Hardly the hail storm had ended and it was still very dark outside, Ronny was out. Riding high on Baba’s boots and Toddy following him, his ears still to unlock as a hang-over of the deafening storm hardly ending. The wind outside was chilly. Noises and nature had started to become a little audible by now! They went down the steps leading to the backyard. She followed them; she never intended to get into the rain water though. The pond in the backyard was overflowing with the freshly added water, the colour of the water from conventional to all-muddy. They could hear the exceeding water running out of the pond into the grasses and the ditches around. All the tall shrubs got hurt by the huge drops and the heavy stones; they had all stooped down a little. The strong winds had twisted the tall trees; from vertical, they were now twisted to all directions one could imagine.
“Why did you unchain him? What if he gets hurt with the hails?”
“He is a guy, not a silly girl like you! We are going hunting!”
The 12 year old “hunter” winked at her and made his way down the steps to the backyard.
“I’ll see if any fish from the pond or birds from the nest in the mahogany trees got shot by the hail storm. I will get you those pink lilies by the water ditches if they are hit too! ”
“Come back! They are not hit and don’t you dare touch those rare flowers!”
He had already reached the tall bushes by the mahogany trees- hunting! She knew those pink lilies were hurt; she just didn’t have the heart to admit it!
“If the phone rings, pick it up bey!”
The phone had been ringing for some time by now. It took some time for her to reach the hall; lights were out and it was still very dark inside. Baba sounded mad.
“Is everything all right bey?”
“No baba! Hail stones have reached till the front porch, Ronny unchained toddy and they are out in the backyard bushes for hunting. Come back fast baba, I really don’t know what to do!”
“Calm down bey! Just see that you go and pick up bul from the bus stop. Don’t get wet. Take the umbrellas with you. Don’t let Ronny or toddy get too wet; they will get sick. Check if the windows are open. Don’t let the water get inside. Make some fire. Warm yourselves. We’ll be back soon, in an hour.”
The bus stop was devastated. Ronny had come along with her and he was enjoying the small patches of water on the road. She stopped telling him not to, just so he doesn’t go running away. She didn’t want to be alone in the street. They had to wait for bul. Her bus had come. The bus looked tired and all wet. Anxious faces tired from the whole day’s school, eager to reach home. Bul came out of the bus. She was wet and looked exhausted. She smiled seeing them.
“Che! I thought you would be at home.”
Her Che smiled. “But I always come to pick you up!”
The weather that day was terrible. Even if baba hadn’t called to pick up bull from the bus stop, she would have.
“Hey!” shouted bul. “who told you to use baba’s boots?” Ronny still had them on. “And stop getting into the mud.” She looked at Che, “I told you not to get this evil boy out in the rain. Look how he behaves. Let’s go Che. Let him play here alone!”
Bul and Ronny got along like cats and dogs, or way worse.
“I’m not inside the mud! Can’t you see tat? You need to change the power of your spectacles.”
Bul adjusted her glasses; that meant she got furious. “One more word and I’ll kill you right here in the street!” Ronny did not appear bothered. He followed them quietly and undaunted.
They made fire in the kitchen. She struggled to find the match box in the dark, the charcoal pieces were damp and they were not starting up to flames so easy. She tried with the old newspaper scraps lying crumbled in the old shoe box on the rack, it didn’t work still. The kerosene she sprinkled into the half ignited charcoal did the trick finally. It was burning now, steady and warm. Bul had got wet in school trying to get into the bus. She was having a headache already. Che wiped the water out of her tresses; they were heavy, long and healthy inviting lots of water droplets into them. Ronny was sneezing. Toddy was wet. He was busy licking the drops of cold water from his pelt. Bey made tea for everyone.
Red tea! Her field of specialisation! Although baba’s favourite was green tea and ma preferred tea with milk, she knew how to prepare the best of both. Bey knew the way around the kitchen which was slowly becoming her area. She got toddy’s rug and warmed it in the fire. Toddy slipped into it instantly.
Baba and ma had come, they could tell; the sounds of the gates opening up far or toddy getting restless way even before. Ma got those freshly baked cookies from the local bakery on the way. Ma’s bag changed from time to time. She was a working woman, very particular about her get up! Baba was just the opposite; he would get a new watch or a new sweater only when all the women folk in the house would coax him, to all limits! Ma would get those bags and jewelry and dresses on a regular basis; they were the latest if not the best! The change of bags did not change the contents though; it would always be that from the local bakery! Cookies and bread for the next morning; or sometimes just plain puffs!
Tea and cookies! The day turned out to be much better than she had anticipated. The three of them couldn’t finish telling about the hail storm. They were thrilled! They didn’t realise but during all the talking toddy had dozed off. They saved him his share of cookies; they didn’t wake him up. He was tired with all the hunting. Poor toddy!
Both the sisters snuggled into their bed. They kept their feet inside the thick blanket. They pretended to do their home work. Ronny was busy making himself comfortable with all the cuts and bites he got while out hunting.
“The tall grasses were even taller than me. Their leaves were like freshly sharpened knives. They cut me through. The red-ants’ colony got attacked by the hail stones; and I got into one of them just by chance. They found me and my legs; they bit me repeatedly. Thank God I had those baba’s boots.”
Ronny’s head was hanging from the bed, upside down. Toddy was lying just beneath the bed, besides Ronny’s hanging head. They were as if whispering into each other. Toddy was hardly paying any attention to him; he was not so much done with the dozing yet. They kept the conversation to themselves as if it were some after-hunt sad tale. The sisters could tell from his tone that he liked it and disliked it at the same time. He was showing his swollen skin to him, the red bite from the red ants. Toddy dint quiet see it for all the things all over him! The sisters couldn’t either. The lights were still out and the candle flames were flickering too much. They could hear ma and baba talking, the same old stuffs about the tattered government office they belonged to. Occasionally they could hear the sound of the wooden spatulas stirring into the steel utensils used to cook broth. It was almost done. They could sense the finishing touches going up to it and smell the spicy aroma let out.
Ma was the best cook in the whole world. Her trick was, Richa and bul discovered later on, she would put less of the fermented fish and more of the dried fish in the vegetable broth. “Boiling it a little more makes it more tender and delicious” she kept on telling. Baba liked it less hot while the girls in the house liked it with lots of pepper and lots of chilies; both green ones fresh from the garden or dried over a season, in the sun. Ma would apply one of her tricks here too. She would put less of the spice in the broth and would make a hot chilly-sauce with fermented fish as her side fish. The girls and sometimes Ronny would relish it with a lot of green onion leaves, which ma would have chopped into fine pieces. None cloud beat ma if fish were to be cooked. Richa always wondered how ma would almost every time prepare the same taste. She was fast to pick up the cooking heritage from ma but bul was terribly slow. None in the house preferred her to cook unless it was plain tea, red tea and not even the one with milk; she was never allowed to cook if guests, however unimportant, were in or even around the house! Richa was famous in the house and the relatives and among her friends too when it came to cooking. Her egg curry was famous in the house. Her friends liked her noodles. Her smashed-vegetables with fermented fish were famous too.
Lights had come back. People got busy setting out the candles they were holding on to till now.
The five of them started off dinner by the fire.
Toddy was waiting for his turn. Ronny tried to stop it but couldn’t; a yawn came out of him in between the chewing.
“Why did you go hunting? Why do you exhaust yourself? ” Baba retaliated.
Ma also joined in “Now finish your food and sleep fast. You have to get up early for school too!”
They were seated all around the fire after food. Ma was still not free; she was busy mixing mustard oil and salt to the fermented fish before she would put them into the plastic container. That was the best way to make it stay the longest. Toddy had finished his share of the meal and the cookies too.
“I got so scared today” Richa started off. “The winds, the hail stones and the thunder, it was all so ghastly.”
Ma replied “and you got scared in your own house? Home is the safest place to be in bey, in the whole world.”
Baba continued, “You at least have a proper house which won’t fall apart into pieces during any kind of storm, of course unless the tree branches strike at the tin roofs! While I grew up we had an old hut with thatched roof. Every time there was a storm or for that matter a slight rain the interiors of the house would get flooded way worse than the outside. And my sisters and brother would be with me, depending on me. My mother would come back late from the market. If she missed the last bus she would come back walking till home with her basket which she would take the vegetables in.”
Baba had seen days of poverty, dejection and unemployment. The girls knew of it. They respected him a lot for having overcame all that dutifully and be the strong man that he is now. He was the ideal man they always looked up to.
“Sometimes when it would rain and it was past the time mother would return, I would tell my siblings to stay in the house and come out in the streets to pick her up. There would be no electricity at night during those times as there were just too few street lamps and they were only in the city area. Previously this area was not so much of a city proper, mostly an outskirt of the city you could say. I would have one lantern in hand and an old umbrella with lots of holes in it. I used to be very happy to see her from a distance. She would still be a shadow in the darkness but I would know it was her for sure. She would be all wet but not from head to toe! The huge basket made out of bamboo sheets over her head had thick plastic linings at the base; I had designed it so that sometimes if she had to sell small size dried fishes instead of the usual vegetables it shouldn’t slip past the old basket!”
Baba smiled. “I am telling you all these not to let you people know what I underwent in my life. What you should always know is that people face problems all the time. So the next time there is thunder or a storm, don’t run around all scared. That’s silly!”
Richa felt so cosy with everyone. Just hours before she was distraught and feverish; she didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how to control Ronny and toddy. She had to pick up bul, make a fire and warm up everyone. Now with baba around control was as if back; it was indeed. Ma had all the warmth in her. The cold and confusion was now only outside of the house, blowing as the bitter winds. Inside the house was comfort. She was not sure of what she would have done if she were in baba’s place but she too had survived a huge storm and an aftermath, in all her rights!