Pitter - Patter

PITTER - PATTER

By Nisha Ghosh

“Papa, can I please roll down the window?” Nita cried.

“Don’t trouble Papa while he is driving”, her mother admonished. “But Papa is not driving! We have been stuck at this signal for so long! I want to see the rain!” She pleaded. Her mother reluctantly allowed her to do so.

“Don’t lower the window too much otherwise the dirty water splashed by the other vehicles will fall on you,” she chided.

Nita was off with her parents on an outing. Since her summer holidays were on and her parents had the day off owing to the weekend, they made an impromptu plan to visit a place on the outskirts of the city well known for its greenery and lakes. The day had just got better because of a sudden heavy downpour. They picked up their umbrellas and raincoats, lots of coloured papers to make paper boats with, some hot samosas from a nearby sweetshop and set off for their trip. The drive was a long one and Nita, out of boredom, had already started making the paper boats. She lowered the window and looked around, there were so many vehicles stuck in the jam, the rain poured incessantly. She saw the motorists getting drenched; some of them had parked their bikes on the corner of the road and took refuge under trees and the flyover bridge. People were rushing to take sanctuary wherever they could find and covered their heads with newspapers, bags or their dupattas on the go.

Unsuspectingly, a little hand tapped at her window. She looked down to find a boy, close to her age dressed in just a pair of dirty shorts. She further lowered the window to find that the boy was completely drenched and shivering due to the cold. He continued staring at her and she looked at him flummoxed. She picked up an orange coloured paper boat that she had just made and 2 samosas and handed it over to him. Just then the signal cleared and the car started. The boy brought the samosas to his face to steal some of its heat. She tracked his diminishing figure till it faded away in the crowd.