The Moment

I stood by the open window of my room and watched the rain fall, enjoying every beat of the sound it made as it hit the roof, loving the way it washed off the dryness of the trees outside and ogling at the sight that the neighbor kids created with their paper boats in the puddles of rain water, while one of them held a huge umbrella over their heads. I took a sip of the coffee from the cup I was holding in my hands, only to realize that it has gone cold. I was too busy thinking about him.

He was someone who had simply become a part of my life without ever defining the relationship we shared. My day started with him, ended with him. However, I never even bothered to consider the fact that such a relationship is usually shared only by people in love. For me, love was a fairy-tale concept. Not that I did not believe in it. I did. What I did not believe was that I would also be part of the fairy-tale.

The rain always reminds me of him.

How many people remember the exact moment when they fell in love? Not many, I’d presume. I do, however. It was after all, the most magical moment of my life, and it would take me ages to even try and forget that moment. And it was on a rainy evening, like this.

It was in the month of October. That evening, I remember, was the last of our exams. As soon as I was done writing the last words on my answer script, I could not hold on anymore. I needed a cup of coffee. A strong one, that too. I ran to my room, threw my bag, changed into something comfortable and ran back to where I had left him. I almost dragged him along with me to the tea-coffee shop outside the campus gate. We met two of our friends on the way, and all four of us went out together. We had a cup of coffee and a veg-burger each, and sat on the half-broken bench there for about half an hour, chatting away animatedly.

While returning, just as we reached the gate, it started raining. The rain was quite unexpected. It was raining heavily and none of us had an umbrella with us. We had no choice but to get soaked in the rain. Not that we did not like it. I was getting wet in the rain after ages. I did not care the least as my exams got over that day, and I did not have to worry even if I fell sick.

Then came the moment. By then, our other two friends had disappeared somewhere. As the two of us were walking towards the hostel through the slippery roads, he held my hand to stop me from falling. He had never done that before. And when he did, he did it with so much care and love, that this small gesture of his changed things between us forever. And when I walked back to my hostel, drenched in the rain, I was not myself anymore. I was in love.

That was one moment, which I owe to the fact that I was not carrying my umbrella with me. Little was I to know that the next time I would have such a moment would be the day I did carry my umbrella and we ended up sharing it together in a similar downpour. This was almost a year later. And if I remember correctly, it was the day we started our journey in love together.

Beeeep! Beeeep!

My cell phone beeped, bringing me back to my senses. My cup of coffee was still unfinished. I opened the message from him that read,

 “Hey, what’s up? The weather looks good. Wanna come out for coffee?”

“Hmmm… Sounds tempting. I’ll be there in half an hour. Let’s go for a walk after coffee.” I replied.

I left my unfinished cup of coffee on the table, shut the windows, and got dressed to go and meet him.

Just as I was about to leave the house, I heard a loud thunderclap. It’s going to rain again. I rummaged through my bag to check if I had my umbrella with me. It was there. I took it out, thought for a moment, kept it on the table and left.

While walking out the door, I texted him, “I’m on my way, love.”