A Sunday

The day started with a rumble in the sky. As I looked out the window, a bleak sight greeted my eyes. The sky was overcast and cast a pale gloom over the surroundings. A cool draft sneaked in through a sliver of a gap in the window and I shivered. Gradually, the wind picked up speed with a fury transforming into a gale of sorts. Twigs and leaves started floating around, occasionally dashing against the window, like the moths bumping into the bulbs in a sultry summer evening. Overhead, the rumbles grew in intensity as the daylight turned into ever growing darkness. It was a telltale sign of an impending rain. There is not much to do when you live in the hills. It is somewhat like a quiet understanding between the nature and human beings.

The climate of Kurseong being volatile all through the year, people like us seem to rejoice in the odd clear mornings while at the same time missing the rain and the wind and the thunder. As I watched, the wind dropped down a little paving way for the rain. What started with a light drizzle turned into a heavy downpour. Of all the days, it happened to be a Sunday. I could just see my plans for the day getting drenched in the drops of water. There was absolutely no respite from the rains beating on the window panes. The noise drowned out all other noises. Without caring to look down I picked up the steaming cup of hot tea from the table and took a sip. It tasted refreshing I don’t know why. The aroma of the tea leaves brightened my senses. Though I was never a coffee guy, tea tasted the same every time. It had become more of an old habit than the delight of a connoisseur. But, today though it may sound clichéd, the tea tasted different. The patter of the rain drops lent a melody to my ears and I truly felt warm and fuzzy. A day could never start better than this.

It was just me and my dad that day. I had come home to spend the summer vacation with my family. Who could have imagined such a day in the midst of summers?Nonetheless if you are in Kurseong, there is always a sweet little twist in weather. Sundays are mostly to unwind and laze around but can be morose if your day begins with the rain. To make the matters worse, the rest of the family had been out. They had gone to Darjeeling to visit an ailing relative. As dad never was an accomplished cook, I took upon myself to don the apron and rustle up a quick breakfast. We had our breakfast in the patio as the wind had died down completely. After we finished eating, I asked my father about his plans for the day.

He said that he might have gone to the market but had changed his plans to watch some movies on the television. I decided to join him. As I started surfing for some live cricket matches it seemed that the cable connection was out. I forgot to mention that the satellite reception always takes a hit when the weather becomes inclement. Miraculously, the power was still on considering the fact that power cuts are frequent in the hills. Now, we were at a loss. There was not a single interesting thing to do. We skipped over playing carrom, ludo and chess because we always end up arguing at the end of it. Finally dad came up with a not so bright idea. Dad loves to watch monochrome movies. He has a quaint little library of early 60s and 70s movies. Dev Anand, Kishore Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Dara Singh, Rajesh Khanna DVDs are neatly stacked in his personal cupboard. He chose a Kishore Kumar movie that day.

As the movie started, dad started narrating the story scene by scene. He has seen each one of the movies umpteen number of times but never gets wary of it. I told him to stop and he did but only for a while. As I looked at him, I could see the child like glee in his eyes and a bright smile spread across his wizened face. I suddenly realized that my dad had grown older since the last time I saw him. I sensed happiness in him that I had long forgotten about. As he went on with his animated narration, I glanced at his wrinkled hands and remembered holding them as a child going to school. Dad paused to cough for a second or two and I felt worried about his health. But the glow was back on his face and on he went again. I felt like a small child listening in rapt attention to fascinating stories, posing a few questions here and there to satisfy my curiosities. Dad seemed to appreciate my interest obliging them with a lot of patience and delight. The movie started growing on me and I felt the same pleasure as dad.

I was watching it through his eyes and started loving every second of it. We get so busy with our lives that we rarely have time to indulge in such little moments. These are the moments that define our life and sweeten our memories. When the movie finally ended, it seemed that the bonding between us had come to a halt. I felt something amiss in my heart. We hadn’t had such a conversation for a long time and I realized how much I had been missing till now. As I got up to prepare lunch I asked him what he would like to have. He smiled and said, “Lunch can wait for some time. I am not hungry. Why don’t we watch another movie? This one is Dara Singh’s. You’ll love the action”. I just smiled back at him.