It’s raining here today…its afternoon and I just got out of my room to throw out some garbage and I realize it is raining. The smell of the wet earth slowly cascades from my nose and mesmerizes every sense...it has always been like this. I live in an obscure port town named Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu. It is situated pretty close to Kanyakumari and far far away from everywhere else. I work in a chemical industry as a chemical process engineer. The job’s boring, but the pay’s good. Today’s my weekly off, so I am watching some movie on my computer and then I realize my room is in the unholiest mess. Well…I don’t really want to work today, but then you got to do what you got to do. So I clean up my room, and pack up the garbage in a plastic bag and go out to throw it away. And then I notice that it’s not the usual burning hot outside…there are shadows of huge clouds sifting through the landscape…there is no dust in the cool wind blowing…and its raining. It’s just a drizzle, I tell myself and yet I can’t help smiling. I breathe deep and soak in the smell of the wet earth. I look around and see the trees tossing their great mass of foliage about like tipsy dancers. I close my eyes and am transported back in time. I am in standard IV, and its raining cats and dogs in Silchar. I am on my way back from school and can hardly restrain my glee. I jump on the puddles and splash water all around. And then suddenly I slip and loose my balance…I’m about to fall down when my elder brother grabs my hand and prevents my fall. Dada has been standing my antics for a long while now and enough is enough he says. He is indignant and doesn’t take much effort to hide it. He is exactly three years older to me (we share our birthday); but as all elder brothers go, he thinks I am his responsibility and he always was the responsible big guy. But then I am the younger brother…so I grin my way to glory and jump at the next puddle. He gives up and walks along while I follow him…hopping and splashing. And then I am in the Xth standard, walking to my tutor’s place with my best pal. It’s about to rain and there are black clouds looming in the sky; the sun sending shafts of evening light through the clouds. And then I see this tree lit by the sunlight…dazzling bright against a twilit silhouette. I cannot move my gaze. After a few moments I turn to look at my pal, and I see he’s looking at the same tree….almost as if in a trance. Then suddenly he looks at me and smiles. We are both smitten by the sight and stay a little while longer to feast our souls on that bright green against the hazy background. But we are already late for our classes and so we leave. Two days later as we walk the same path again, we are stunned as we see our tree felled on the ground, cows and goats chewing at the drooping leaves. Some ancient rage rises through me, but I choke it down my throat. I smile at my pal and we walk away. But we talk of our tree for many a day to come. Now, I am in Hyderabad. I have just joined an engineering institute; well… three months ago, to be precise. The brutal ragging sessions finally got over two weeks back. It’s a weekend and I’ve come down to see a friend. We spend the whole day walking around this place where you can find a lot of second hand books. Now its evening and we are back at her place, sitting on the edge of her terrace dangling our legs, looking at the Necklace Road and talking about Wuthering Heights and David Copperfield and of everything else on this universe. We don’t realize it’s late and suddenly it begins to rain heavily. She looks at me and breaks out into a laugh. And then she tugs at my arm and says let’s dance. “But I don’t know how to”, I say. “I’ll teach you”, she says. “But we don’t have any music”, I say again. She smiles impishly and says “hear close…we do have music.” I concentrate and realize that the rain has cut off all sounds of the traffic; and all around the only sound is that of the raindrops falling. I want to dance. She takes my hand and places it between her shoulder blades and then she takes my other hand and proceeds to teach me waltz. We are completely drenched and cannot stop laughing at our stupidity. We dance a slow waltz in the rain till it’s not raining anymore, and the bright stars are smiling from heaven on two foolish kids. I dry off at her place and take her leave. I am happy. I’m in the final year of engineering. Its Durga puja holidays and I am in Konark now. It’s night and a storm is brewing. I sit on the Chandrabhaga beach and gaze at the sea frothing in some arcane fury. In some strange way, I can feel its pain in my heart. I am alone and there is no one else on the beach. It’s only the sea, the clouds, the moon and the occasional light beam from the lighthouse…and me. I gaze around me and lose the sense of time. But for my modern clothes, I could have been a solitary nomad on one of his sojourns. The jarring sound of my cellular shocks me back into reality. It’s a colleague calling to clarify a doubt. I finish the call, and throw away the garbage bag. I have got lots to do…finish the movie, clean up my room, water my plant, reply my mails and search for better career options. But before any of those, I’ll just step out for a moment and get wet in the rain.