Monsoon does not disrupt life in Coonoor. In fact, it adds to her charm. A nice warm cup of tea and a stroll on the hilly road reveals her charisma. The scent of the rain, the heaviness of the mist and the low clouds brings out a new place every day. Customarily, school kids wear their raincoats over the school bags and hold on to their umbrellas, looking like little Sherlock Holmes with a hump on the back. The fog lamps of the vehicles come to life. The humming sound in the tea factories keep floating around day and night.

It was a similar rainy evening. Daksh was waiting on the club road bus stop for her. It had been almost seven years since he spoke to her. Although he spoke very little, he did, to her. He could not surmise how quickly time flew. He was not very sure if she would come.

Daksh was going out of the country for a while and he wanted to meet her before he left.  

Seven years was a long time and it took him some effort to figure out where Navya lived and it was a surprise to him.

Some episodes in life never fade away from our memories, like beautiful monsoon in Coonoor. It was one such episode, in that very same club road bus stop when Daksh met Navya. It was drizzling in the evening. The lazy sun sheepishly sunk behind the thick curtain of cloud. Tiny beads of water were sliding over the leaves and grass across the road. A wandering horse there quenched its thirst and hunger simultaneously by grazing that grass. Daksh was little frustrated due to the ruined soccer match. He was hitting the football onto the wall over and over again. The wet ball was sketching the wall with mud stains on every punch. He wasn’t waiting for bus. He was just killing some time before he went home which was not very far from there. There was a gust of chill wind. He pulled over his sweater. The gust brought a faint layer of fog with it. From the Club Road stop he could see only up to the Cornwall Crossroad junction.

There on the other side of Club Road appeared a silhouette of a girl with an umbrella. She was holding the umbrella tilted towards the left side shielding the drizzle. She walked along the road with unhurried pace, like she was late for nowhere. Slowly the silhouette developed into a portrait. First thing he noticed was the umbrella. It appeared decorative with orchid flowers printed on the borders. Apparently, there was a leak in the umbrella. Rain drops squeezed themselves through the unseen gap in the umbrella and tried to bounce towards her. She was well aware of the situation and wrecked their dreams simply flicking her finger tips against them in a timely fashion, one after another. She was wearing a paisley patterned grey colored sweater which was drenched by rain near the sleeves. Since then grey became Daksh’s favored colour for unknown reasons. Whenever he had to pick a colour, he picked grey, mostly unwittingly.

When she came near the bus stop, she glanced at him for about a second. But that view stuck in his mind for an eternity. She had a thin scar above her right eye, which gave a unique touch to the portrait. Sensing her distraction, few squeezing rain drops from the orchid umbrella bounced over her nose, thereby embracing their destiny. She wiped them off with her grey sweater sleeve, and resumed her dreams wrecking process with fingertips. She wasn’t exactly smiling. But he could see that she was lively and delighted due to the climate. There was serenity in her appearance. She obviously adored the rain. She had a ‘relaxed French braided’ style with her wet hair. A tiny chrysanthemum was hugging her hair. It appeared to be alive and whispering behind her ears.

She glided till the crossroad, then turned right towards the Cornwall Road. Slowly the portrait withered into a silhouette and then dissolved with the nature. The serenity in her appearance caught Daksh after that. He felt calm and joyous. The feeling similar to watching a snow cladded peak or a calm sunset in mid-ocean or the stars on a cloudless night. She was ‘a thing of beauty’. Shortly after she disappeared the fog lifted, the drizzling stopped, and the clouds cleared revealing the sun near the horizon and the horse. He couldn’t recall which way the horse went. It was like all of them had gathered at the crossroad to feast their eyes when she cruised through the roads.

Time passed by. He started waiting for her at the Club Road stop. She too noticed him. Most of the time she came with her paisley patterned sweater and orchid umbrella. They befriended each other. They liked one another. They rarely spoke on the streets. They spoke over the phone, that too only over weekends. He waited for the weekends to arrive and she waited for the phone to ring. After some time Daksh proposed to her. She never accepted his proposal, but neither denied. She said she’ll reply in favour when the time is right.

Later Daksh went out of Coonoor for higher studies. Navya’s parents got transferred and she had to move out of Coonoor too. Their only contact through the phones broke abruptly. That came as a shock to Daksh. He moved on with his life, but those memories never faded. At times he even had hallucinations of Navya appearing next to him. She was deep within his head. Now after so many years, he cracked her current living location via her parent’s office contacts. To his surprise she’s now living in Coonoor and was married. He contacted Navya and they agreed to meet at same old Club Road bus stop.

He is waiting there at the stop. There suddenly came a gust of chill wind, which brought a faint layer of mist with it and started drizzling, dramatically!! A car arrived at the stop. Navya got out of the car. She opened the rear door and took out a shawl and covered herself with it. She then pulled out an umbrella and shielded herself from the drizzle. It is the same orchid umbrella. The shawl is grey in colour and contained paisley patterns. She came towards him. She looked the same ‘a thing of beauty’.

“Hey Daksh, how are you?” She asked in a cracking voice, about to break.

“Hi. I’m good… Good. Thanks.”

“So… you said you’re moving abroad?”

“Hmm.. yes, for a while.”

“Good. That’s good.” She said.

“You came back to Coonoor!!”

“Ahh… yes, I like it here.” She said. By then her eyes became moist.

A long silence entangled them. The drizzle was thickening into rain. Slowly some rain water beads squeezed themselves through that invisible hole in the orchid umbrella and bounced onto her nose.

But she did not wipe them off today.

“So… hmm… how are you? Are you…”clearing his throat Daksh asked “Are you happy these days? Contended?”

Quickly she replied “Yes. Of course. I am…. I am a…. satisfied girl now” and her voice broke.

Covering her mouth she said in a feeble sound,

“It’s starting to pour. I’ve to reach home before that, take care yourself” and she turned back.

Daksh was not sure if those were tears or rain drops that ran down her chin. He never replied.

Navya got into the car and drove towards the crossroad and into Cornwall Street. The fog lifted and the rain stopped.

Night came. Both were desperate to meet each other, hold each other and tell how much they've suffered without each other.

He sat in the alley, his face pale. It was gray, the sky painted in streaks of dark and light, equally bleak and hollow. Dark slashes of rain arrogantly darted to the ground, splashing with impertinence on the cold black street. His eyes were closed, his eyelashes thin bars against the pale of his thin eyelids. Impervious to the cold he seemed, his hands clutched at his sides, his knees drawn halfway up to his chest, jeans becoming soaked in the downfall. He looked up slowly, his eyes peeling open, focusing on the dim outline of the brick wall before him; a harsh line through his obscured field of view. The alley was unlit, the absence of illumination causing his figure to serve only as an extension of the shadows, a shape taking form as he stood, arising from the dark.

She stood in the rain, her hair a lightness unconquered by the torrent. It was blue, the rain carving white lines into the landscape, bleak and unchecked. The sky had become black, a roiling abyss above her, filled with the tears of the atmosphere. Her eyes stared ahead, blue orbs into the vast reaches of the unobtainable future. Her hands hung in fists at her sides, small yet indomitable. Her resolute expression remained impassive as the rain fell on her cheeks, tears she had never cried. She took a step forward, planting her small foot on the black road, her gaze unwavering as she strode to her definitive goal. She closed her large doe eyes, the beauty within them fading as they became nothing but her pale lids, eyelashes fluttering quickly as she twitched when a drop laid itself immobile on her. The road lay in grey and blue light, the simplicity of nature’s illumination.

He walked, his stature tall and straight, decided against his fate and believing in his future. His clothes became soaked as he strode against the rain, the unforgiving wind driving its chill into him. Harsh stares formed in his mind, as blank as they were cruel, his imagined falsities sending him into a doubtful sense, impairing his resolve. Even as he progressed, he faltered, each step lashing his consciousness with a determined sensation of hopelessness, the doubt masterfully gaining the upper hand, sending him to his knees.

She tore open her eyes, the invitation of rest a temptation of her mind. She strode forward, locked in her mind; no dissuasion could force her to cease her relentless struggle towards her regressive objective. With the harsh gusts of wind behind her, she fell with the rain, letting the forces of nature push her along her path. Then, as the rain fell in droves of unending cold, she stopped, a recurrent thought bringing itself to her open mind. The loneliness struck her as a negative and depressive thought, her existence unequalled by another, no one to share the beauty of the rain with.

And they came upon each other, he still kneeling, frightened, and she in the darkest of places, her mind filled with the worry of solitude. And they saw each other, his bleak gaze quelled, her hard stare softened, both of their regrets, worries, fears, and sorrows falling away like some vast mountain in time, crumbling under the passages of a metaphorical sea, eroding the hurt and misery in their eyes. And as he stood, she ran, the rain liberating them from their vices, sending an ecstatic wonderment over the two of them. And they embraced, her hands folding into his, small fingers encased between his, their noses close, their breath sweet and warm upon each other. And they smiled, freed from the constraints of their fears, one with each other.