And It Rained....

Shankar wakes up slowly and looks at the clock hanging on the wall opposite to his bed. Clock shows its 1.30 am and mid-night has just passed.

He gets up from his bed and starts to get ready without making any sound. In the next 2 minutes, he is ready and is about to open the door of his room .But before doing that his eyes are stuck on his two-year old son, Adi who is still sleeping. For a moment he looks at his innocent face and then glances at his wife, Savita, who is also sleeping and was completely unaware of any movements around. As he looks at his wife and son he feels like his feet have suddenly turned heavy and he is not able to move it. Soon he realises that the weight he is feeling is not of his body but of his emotions.

Shankar opens the door very slowly, and without making any sound, comes out of the room and shuts the door back. He comes out of his home and keeps walking away from the home. As he continues walking, a huge ocean of thoughts start flowing in his mind.

In his mind, he could see the clear flashes and images from the previous day when they had brought the idol of Lord Ganesha to their home. Adi was so excited with the arrival of Ganesha at his home. With all his half developed vocals, he was asking many questions to his mom and dad about Ganesha.

Adi : “Gampati bappa la prasad kay karaycha?” (What Prasad shall we make for Ganesha?)

Adi: “Gampati sobat undir ka aanala?” (Why there is a mouse with Ganesh?) and so many more questions. The question which Shankar remembers particularly was: “Aapan Gampati la kay magayeche?” (What should we ask Ganesha to give us?)

Both Shankar and his wife told him to ask for / pray for rains.

Its 17th of September and still there were no rains. All the plans which Shankar had for this year were ruined away due to failed monsoons.

Adi folds his hands and with his cute innocent voice he says “Bappa paus yeun de. Gampati bappa morya” (Ganesha bring rains.)

With all those thoughts Shankar was walking ahead without even knowing how far he had reached. All of sudden his feet hits with some stone and he comes back to present. He looks at the wrist watch in his hand and realises that he has been walking for the past 45 mins. He looks at a tree and sits at the bottom of the tree. As he sits down and war of the thoughts begin, the same moment in his mind.

Due to very short or no rains this year Shankar was in big trouble. If there wouldn’t be any more rains this year and then he won’t have anything to feed his family. He had been thinking on what to do in this situation so as he could help to his family and at least his family doesn’t have to starve for the food. Finally he had decided to commit suicide.

No, Shankar was not a person who would run away from the problems, but when he remembers the words told to him by insurance agent that if anything wrong happens to him then his family would get Two Lakh rupees and his son's education expenses will be taken care by insurance company.

Shankar has taken some insurance policy 2 years back where he had to pay twenty one thousand rupees per year. Now when the situation is worst and there are no other options open, Shankar thinks of ending his own life so that his family can survive happily.

The only challenge now he has is that his suicide should look like an accident and not a suicide, because only then the insurance company would help his family. He keeps thinking on the various options of ending himself.

With lots of thought in his mind he feels very tired and just closes his eyes so as to finalize the option to end his life. He keeps his eyes closed for a while and he loses himself again in floods of thoughts and he misses his attention on time and place. He doesn’t realize how much time he was sitting there with closed eyes.

All of sudden his nostrils get some smell which makes him open his eyes. When he opens his eyes and looks at the wrist watch he comes to know that it’s already 5.00 am but it’s still dark everywhere. When he looks for the source of the smell and he finds that smell is earthy, which usually produced when rain falls on dry soil. All of sudden he stars feeling fresh without even knowing what is happening. In another few seconds he realizes that it started raining and due to rain earth is producing that magical smell. Shankar not able to understand what is happening and what to do, he simply comes out of the tree and few rain drops fall on his face. The moment rain drop touches his face and his eyes starts rolling tears, making it difficult to identify which is real rain.

The rain becomes faster in another few mins and by that time Shankar is completely drenched with water. He moves towards his home. When he reaches home, his son has already started playing in rains. He looks at his wife who is standing at the entrance of their home and her face clearly shows all the shades of worries. When she sights Shankar and all of sudden she feels like her throat is completely choked. All of sudden tears rolled out of her eyes which she was trying to hide with her sari.

Shankar holds his son who was playing in rains looks at him and hugs him tightly. He looks at his wife, who was still standing at the same place. He keeps looking at her; like he was trying to assure her that I am here with you and will not be going anywhere.

As he releases his son from his arm, he says “Baba Gampati bappani ni aapli baat maanali ani paus zhala” (Ganesha has listened to our prayers and hence it is raining). Shankar says “Ha beta bappa ni baat maanali” (Yes, Ganesha answered our prayers) and hugs him again tightly.

Not sure if it was the prayer to Ganesh or it was little Adi’s innocence or it was Savita’s love for her husband that brought these rains, but it was sure that these showers saved one life, one family.