The Rainy Stories

-Original content by Sunil Joshan

It's around a year ending, one day when I got stuck in a downpour with a piece of heavy baggage on my back and took a quick run towards a nearby bus stop named Prabhalaya Church in Bangalore, India. It was a completely seems to be a calm and composed ambiance that accompanied with the closed shutters of various shops & halted vehicles on both sides of the road and a mob got sheltered under a colossal isolated tree that left unharmed since it was believed to be a charisma to the entrance of the same church.

At the bus stop, I got occupied by the corner of the bench, relieved my shoulders from that heavy baggage & an English hoary guy who got seated at the other side of the same bench gazed at me in a helpful way and offered me water to get myself relaxed. A comfortable conversation happened between us for a few minutes and I got to know about his visit to India.

It's around 5:45 PM, since half an hour I was at the bus stop, suddenly there was a black colored car Volvo SUV got stopped in front of the bus stop where we got sheltered and a gentleman who was in his late 40's stepped out of the car without asking for an umbrella from his driver took his blazer in hands stood besides our bench and thrown a simple smile at us as if he knew us already but of course, I didn't saw him anyway before. I was engaged in some random thoughts by gazing at him as to why this wealthy-looking gentleman got out of that beast car and told him to move on. Out of curiosity, I leaned forward to call him, but his phone got ringed up and he himself engaged in some serious talk over the phone. My bench mate and I exchanged our looks with some piece of silence so that we can call him politely and offer him to have a seat in between us. But after a while, we called him and he sat in between us.

"Hello sir, hi I am Joseph..Hmmm.. Do you need some water??" greeted him with a careful smile since he was still angry. He took some time and greeted back with a kind of little relaxation "No..Its okay..thanks for the seat" and that English old guy was in some stress about this gentleman position. 

"Hey hi... hello gentleman..what happened to you..Is everything okay..looks so disturbed !..relax okay...Hmmm, Why you got down here in this downpour ..?.." After taking a little breath in a relaxed mood, he lifted his head up, looked at the old guy and said "Actually, sometimes earth looks empty without any people and feel like nobody is there to understand, realize what you need actually.."

In a surprise, we both exchanged our looks for a few seconds with a couple of blinks that bought random thoughts " very miserable and looks so muddled, some worst people would have shown their back in his needy hours'' and got a sense of his serious depth of feelings even if we weren't in his shoes and so, we kept calm. For a few minutes, we individually built some invisible bond with such pouring rain by goggling at her speed and listening to her celebrations through audible raindrops on metallic roof sheets of shelter at the bus stand. A soft voice reached my ear from the right side and I turned to it "Hello, young man! My name is Rajeev '' greeted by that wealthy gentleman. That soft voice indirectly made us believe that he was relaxed now and replied to him "Hello Mr.Rajeev".

After that for a few more minutes, we really had a comfy conversation for a few minutes but which got heated at the end when he got to know about my rain accompanied journey with heavy baggage by leaving home unwittingly for certain reasons which seem to be loopy, utter immature and even infantile for him in his thoughts.

At the same time, by having a casual talk with that elder old English guy Mr.Wilson, Rajeev even got to know about the purpose of his visit to India, but by which he got surprised was about his solo trip to another country for the first time at the age of 73 years that too he made this by selling his house, properties without leaving thought to go back. A few minutes got occupied by silence in between us by keeping echoes of large raindrops aside and actually I was astonished at first but later the tears of Mr.Wilson melted our hearts and we realized the meaning for those tears, through which he narrated his experience of enjoying every moment of his real-life of the past 83 days since he left his home without notifying his children.

Myself & Rajeev were in mere silence, felt really jammy to feel those larger than life experiences through his words, which lightened our tiny hearts with a set of positive vibes. On the other side, within the next minute, Mr.Rajeev's face got isolated, eyes got trembling with irregular moves and started to ruminate by keeping his elbows in his lap with a sense of tense which we both noticed but we were in nearby guess since we knew what he had spoken with us, meanwhile I picked up his fallen blazer from his feet.

By keeping that blazer on my left shoulder, I started looking at his face, which was so wretched but my inner self urged me to solace, assuage him with a pep talk. In the meantime, Wilson took the charge by throwing a denying gesture at me by waving his hand, so I was far into utter silence for a few minutes and kept on listening to that colloquy happening in between them but in no time that turned into a secret talk by moving little closer towards each other and I was observing by staring at them in keen but zipped me without saying a word and I thought it might be a taboo related stuff and that conversation has happened for a quarter-hour which gave a voice to unusual feelings like extreme anger on an instant, shedding of tears that colored his eyes as red and yelling at Wilson. After that, Wilson got up from his seat, stood in front of Rajeev and asked him to get up, kept a western cigar in his right hand along with a metallic lighter which looked rare & voguish and advised him to relieve himself mentally by smoke accompanied by a small walk.

So, when Rajeev was a few feet away from us, Wilson seated very right to me, gave a gist of the actual story behind his depression, stress that he felt a few minutes back. Even I was speechless with a needy silence in my mind after hearing that and knowing about his childhood being as an orphan, one of those street children who came across sufferings which does not end without including his privation that he has gone through before reaching the stage where he was now and knowing about the same guy, who was a lecher too in his late teens and young age for a period of 7 years, which sounds unusual. And, later by shifting out from there completely, he came out of his mental senses and wiped off such ways of earning his bread & living from his life and paved a way for a good start by choosing, learning certain skills which assisted him in earning a decent life that surrounded him with a god gifted family, respectful job with a hefty package. 

But today, the exact reason which made him get down in a downpour and influenced his mind & soul to spend a few hours alone apart from throwing some random thoughts over the office, family life was very personal which can’t be dealt with by anyone except his inner self & defined privacy.

From listening to their realistic life stories, my mind got attached with one line i.e. Experiences of the elders were like packed Lessons to the younger and as a Millennial, then I came back to my senses by controlling my random thoughts which initially ruined me in the same day morning itself when I was making some unbalanced arguments with them, who were actually very much balanced in their life and with an outburst of anger, I came out of the house without their notice and then realized that I made a mistake with my parents and then I got to know about the nature, value of the various phases of the life which are absolutely incomparable with others but surely relatable.

So, then I dropped out of my further plan of vacating home & my attitude of being selfish for my happiness & cleared out the idea of staying away from parents for such silly issues...Yes...Yahhh...Absolutely Silly....they were very nonsense and seemed useless. And the downpour almost became negligible with tiny raindrops, since the moment that I had realized, I got self ashamed for my past thoughts & actions then I decided to go back to my home.

I got up from the seat, glanced at both Wilson & Rajeev who were a few steps away from me & engaged in some confab. And. I took my baggage to the shoulders and when I was about to move from the bus stop then I was called by Rajeev, I turned back, "Hey Joseph..wait for sec.".. Rajeev came near to me followed by Wilson."yes..sir..tell me ??" I replied in a low tone.

"Hmm...I will drop you or at least I will come along with you …." Rajeev said with care.

"No..Sir...It's fine...Just let me do my things on my own..both either mistakes or specifications...That's what I am going to do for the rest of my life.." I said it even in a low tone but with seriousness in my eyes & determination in my voice and I continued my jou\rney by saying a sincere thanks to both of them and actually it was felt like a signature of gratitude that I need to keep in mind towards them and towards the god who made my karma to stuck in that rain, which is not only renown for creating a desire for having hot snacks, making memories for children through their paper boats and painting the nature with beautiful monsoon for candid shots but gave me a chance to learn the tenets of a happy life through the eyes of their stories.

“ How far, you could be optimistic in your life which sometimes seems to be a burden to bear, tears to show, inner pain to express until unless you get yourself committed for the right & tough decisions by keeping outsiders at far and believing yourself in near “

                              Sincerely Thank You for the Reading ( A Fictional Based Story)