At night, the house slumbered under the deepest night colour. Suddenly, a long, thin, light sippppppped through the sky. An arc appeared on the ground as a strong wind lifted the gate latch of the Main Gate of Colony.
In different directions of the house, mostly above ̶ ̶ ̶ lions, lionesses and their cubs roared. A tube light switched on and off, on and off, on and off…in the sky.
What had seemed a raging dust storm was instead a collection of cool wind, accompanied by dust storm.
Bittu made a pact with his half shut eyes to remember and include this scene in the debate if a topic on climate change comes tomorrow. Rain in June will win him the Best Speaker award at Guru Gobind Singh College tomorrow.
See, didn’t I sense it in the bathroom today, both Leo and House wondered in Mayur Vihar and Pragati Vihar. It rained like cats and dogs for 1200 seconds.
The wind asked the windows to repeat what it had taught windows to answer. Having always been good observers, windows aced the lesson, and swung gloriously, making sure that the wooden frame gets scratched by hitting the walls. Thak thak thak…thak, woke Grey up and he moved to another tree to sleep. After this, the window invited the tired wind to enter inside the house, who rolled on swiftly.
Meanwhile, another set of wind wanted to meet other gaps of the house. So it went ahead to watch over the slits below ill fated frames, where once folded-creased newspapers fitted. Everyone met several kinds of pitch blackness in the house.
Among all this Leo’s socks was slowly moving towards a window in the bedroom. It was very happy to have a visitor. Leo’s sock lay alongside an empty Racer gel pen on the floor. After having been chewed on so many times, now the sock just liked water and this was one of those opportunities!
That night, the windows swung in the rain alone. The family didn’t shut them when they shifted (or was it before they shifted, or was it after they shifted). All jaali ki windows were shut though. Sky blue curtains were the 20th item to be taken off. Since the rods were favouring oxygen and water more, Rashmi left them in the house. Good for me, thought the house. The house was hanging down from those rusted rods, when the victory dance of rain drops started, thrashing bubbles on left out plastic sheet one by one, that lay where Ritz stood in the morning and will no more stand there ever.
Colony’s guard ran for cover towards his room near the Main Gate, where he had written in Big Letters ‘Yahan se exit mana hai’. His night duty would end early tonight as he opened flask to pour himself a cup of tea. He made another cup of tea by dipping the tea bag in warm water. He hated it so much. Then he tossed an elaichi to offset the stale taste and smiled as he watched Tik Tok videos. He smile again in his sleep because he felt happy to have smelled the earth as he had remembered to open the window of his small room before he slept with an opened mouth on the chair.
Fluorescent night lights glittered in the solitude struck road which no one really took at this hour, and all that could be heard was the sound of rain spluttering — on the road, beside trees, around pink pavements, outside cars, around scooters, inside parks, over tanks on terraces, on walls, and on a shivering green fibre sheet which did not hesitate to beat a rhythm for the colony gates.
The kids that lived before Vinayak’s family moved in this house had first learnt sound of Rain as Pitter Patter. Their mother demonstrated this by tapping belan on the floor. Once inside the ground floor, the sound would get in touch with bathroom pipes, and cockroaches would stop and peep, who would be busy scavenging behind nuts and bolts.
The house knew a lot of things but it never learnt any. It constantly maintained that it is different. I don’t feel Life like the living or other objects do. Even though I liked the people that stayed here, I don’t intend to get dragged to my favourite human and become like this sock that is now lying completely drenched near the window.
The winds had now pushed the sock towards the window of living room. The dirt from the footsteps of so many people that stepped over the sock today (and didn’t even remember that such a thing existed) — was slowly dissolving in the collection of droplets entering the house. I just stay. For a long time, I used to see myself as trees ̶̶ ̶̶ I just stand there; see the world passing by; in between, I sometimes get chopped off too.
The rain slowed down, and it now reverted to a quite drizzle, overfilling puddles made near some of the potted plants that the family didn’t take. The house suddenly wished to spread itself till the boundary wall of the colony so as to take in this part of rain too, you know for the plants inside.

