He Gave The Slip

With the shrill ringing of 

The phone on that Saturday

A voice on the other end said

Words that still ring in my head

"He is no more" please arrange 

To claim his remains at the earliest.

The call was from the police station

Copious tears I shed that day

Rains poured as if in consolation 

Unmatched to the grief experienced 

He lived alone, on his own insistence

Far away in a remote place

Ten hours drive from the city we stayed

Hired a private taxi to reach us there

But fate had other plans that day

Rains came down in thick curtains 

Forced to stop at the nearest shelter

A dhaba with a few charpais for bed

Adviced not to take the road ahead

Spent the night stranded on the highway

All night stayed awake, listening 

To the pelting rain, as though sharing

In our pain, tear glands like burst dams

Kept at pace with the torrential rains

Morning brought no relief, still rained

We drove like insane through untarred 

Muddy roads and thick Sal forests

Reached our destination, only to find

In our absence, his grandson had

Performed the last rituals!

There was no Dad to pay our 

Last respects. He had chosen to

Leave in our absence, to reduce

Our pain of seeing him inert, frozen

We were left not even with his ashes

Rain had extinguished the funeral pyre

Burning logs, and along with it

Had washed away the ashes 

Left with his belongings to hold on

Why rains always make me mourn.