the stormy nite

It was least of the things I imagined would ever happen. I made my friends party in this ritual. My wariness was of no use this time around. It all began on a stormy night. The rain started like a water sprinkler in a public park. It was smooth and soft, the first drops of the monsoon on my glasses ( I was driving a bike). The ground before me reacted with even more excitement. It was like it opened its mouth to quench its thirst , that it has been waiting to do so for years. I kept driving in this lite mizzle towards my destination until it was dark. Shutters were about to be closed on the coffee shop that I was longing to visit for 1 and 1/2 year.

My friends were still waiting for me, damning and cursing but all in friendly spirits. I was at my usual forgive me smiles and actions and (I) got a warm up smile back from them. There we are finally, at the post that used to be our usual rendezvous on lazy Friday evenings. Anybody else at our age and level would be thinking of hitting a club or a bar for a couple of beers. No but not we. Each one would wait for the other to join and finally to cheer each other with a cup of coffee. Could sound little odd but it is true.

But that was long ago. Things are a little or should I be saying a lot different now. Not that we do not want to see each other anymore, but the destiny made it happen that way. Some have moved to other places and some have other things to take care of. Except for the occasional reminiscence of the past there is not much we are doing.

But today I chanced upon this meeting. It did lack the energy of those days but still alive. That made me feel gay. I was here on a vacation and we friends decided to meet at the same place. Not everyone turned up. That's expected as we are bit "grown" ups now. We talked about past actions and the people. Few brought big laughs and few were bland. In all this mentations we forgot about the rain which now is pouring in buckets. Half the place was inundated and we had no idea on how to reach home that night. The coffee shop was empty by then and they already switched off all the lights. We four were still hashing out how to get the hell out of this place. We turned on the radio to know the weather report. Just heard that a cyclone is predicted and already 70% of the city is under water. Even if we figure out a way to go home in this rain, we were not sure if we will reach home safely without getting flushed any of those open drains that are a regular in this part of the world. Now our place is totally dark and we could not see anything but the cups that are reflecting light from the rare emergence of a car head light on the adjacent road.

None of us have won a bravery award in our lives and we are no Bollywood heroes. Amidst all this chaos we saw a small light coming from a corner of the shop which even in a broad day light has no activity. It is a kind of abandoned part. We did not pay much attention to it, thinking it is some fire fly or a random reflection. But it started making strange movements and light was getting bigger and bigger. As if to make us s*** in our pants, we saw some strange voices coming out of that place. We started sweating heavily even though it was dead cold because of the rain. We four held each other's hand and transmitted with our eyes that we are one in this now and will take care of this...whoever it is.

We looked around for some thing hard like a rod or a stick. I did not think we would be so fortunate in this unfortunate hour of the night. We moved closely to the spot. The light became dimmer and dimmer as we moved closer and closer. We were worried if the splash sound that was coming when we were walking in water would alert the "thing". To our surprise it did not. As we corned the target, raised the bar to hit it hard. Then two hands came up in the air and a big shout emerged from the corner. We were startled and four of us ran into four different directions. Then the man came out running into the middle. He switched on all the lights and then we recognized him. He is the security guard at the shop. He was doing his routine security check, that is it. We just over reacted.

We laughed that it was a eventful night and had some thrilling fun. By the end of all this, the rain subsided ( our weather guys never change). We bid each other adieu.