Thunder and Lightning

The lockdown phase in India has been going on for a while and these days it seems small things can trigger real nostalgia. I have always enjoyed rains in India because I stayed in places where we would need them pretty badly. The hot days of central India or the hot-and-humid days of east India, all make you yearn for some rain and cool breeze.

Today they came, after day-long foreplay of humidity and stillness. Eventually, I could hear the music of distant rumbling thunder, and just like that, I drifted back to Texas. Nostalgia wove herself around me and now I just have to ramble about it.

I remembered... 2019 (somewhere in April I think), the famous Texas heat was making herself cozy. I was holed up inside my apartment. That heat is not my fascination. At some point though, I realized the community pool was rather quiet for a weekend. And the sun was not glaring in through the shutters. It was instead a cool light. Curious, I looked outside. Sure enough- I saw the tree leaves rustling in a good breeze. Very far away the sky was not a summer blue. With every passing minute, the horizon started getting covered with this ghoulish grey blanket. Soon a heavy layer of cloud canopied the entire community. Everything went still. Even the community mocking bird, who sang incessantly through the day and even throughout the night, shut up when the stillness drew. 

This sudden hope-of-rain drew me out on the patio. I checked my patio-plants and it looked like they were anticipating some relief from the scorching heat too. 

You probably know that light travels faster than sound. And there it was, in the horizon... a crisp sharp thick bolt of lightning. Then the sound followed. Not a gentle distant rumbling. A loud laughing-crackling thunder. Old Indian horror movies would kill for that sound. One two three four five... they went on and on and on. 

And finally, after many minutes of arguing, the clouds won and had their way. They burst open and rain came pouring in. They rushed from the clouds as kids rush out when they hear the lunch bell. An Earthy smell wafted when they hit the road. I closed my eyes to soak it in. To me, it's an emotion. The smell of first rain reminds me of the much-waited Monsoons in India.... how our lives revolve around that one season. A loopy-loop of nostalgia. 

Not surprisingly, I later learnt that many areas of Texas saw tornadoes and flash flood warnings that day. These majestic thunderbolts also caused an apartment to burn down in a neighbouring community another time. If you have the opportunity to stay in Texas you will know, the weather there changes more frequently that the weeks themselves. You might be sun-bathing today and tomorrow you might be grabbing you winter jacket. It might be followed by a Tornado-watch and flash flood and boom- a very sudden-spring-like-day after that. 

And with every change, a small new story is spun. Some funny, some frustrating, but each one someday sums up as nostalgia.