Winter | Ramu Das

I walk from home for office. I stretch my neck and look up toward the sky. It’s dark and cloudy. Today, it might rain, I think. I have been thinking the same for the past few days. I look for my umbrella but it is nowhere in sight. It has been a year that I made any use of it and god knows where it is. Maybe I can buy a brand new umbrella, but I ain’t got no time for it. I don’t want to be late in my office once again like I was yesterday; I’m least inclined to receive a piece of the senior manager’s mind.

Now I’m in my office’s premises. Just as I’m about to go onto the elevator, so it can carry me to the fifth floor where my office is, the sky roars with all its might and gives me a start. It is going to rain, now I’m dead certain. The sky didn’t roar this season until today.

Upon reaching my desk, I pull the chair from behind the desk and switch on the computer system. The computer glows, I look out the window, and what I see brightens me up: it’s raining, and it’s raining ferociously.

Tip, tip, tip, comes the sound of falling rain. It’s falling incessantly – tip, tip, tip – and I know it won’t stop any time sooner. The rain bangs the windowpane of my cabin aggressively. I open the window a little and a few drops of rain falls on my trousers, soaking it wet.

Now, I am visible to my colleagues and a broad smile comes on their faces as well as on my face. As they pass by my desk, they greet me with ‘hi’ and ‘hello’ and I greet them back. On full swing I continue my 9 hours shift and time slips away so swiftly that now I’m ready to go back home.

By the same lift I go down to the ground floor, but lo, what with the roads covered with water all over up to my knees! No passenger vehicle is visible to me, and as I said earlier I got no umbrella to protect me from the rain.

Why, I wonder, should there be a winter vacation and a summer vacation, and no vacation during the rainy days? What would be nicer than spending the rainy days with a cup of tea to sip and some good books to read! So heavenly it would be to spend the rainy days listening to the most melodious of music, or watching the best of movies, and I would prefer silence as much as all other things. Why, at all, do I have to go to office and work! “Money!” cries the heart. Yes, how else will I fill the stomach?

I’m waiting under the cover of a shop for the rain to thin out a little so I can step ahead and walk homeward. It will take at the most 15 minutes for me to reach home paddling. I wait for the rain to thin out. I wait. Two hours have passed; the rain isn’t falling as ferociously as before, now it’s just drizzling. At this hour, that is to say, midnight, the road is empty. I’m the solitary walker, save for a few cars running on and off.

With great difficulty, I walk the road, and now I climb up the steps to my room. I insert the key in the keyhole of the lock and grab the knob of the door and push it. Duh, what is this I see?! The floor is full of water (at least five inches high), where did it come from I cannot tell for sure. As I touch the mattress of my bed, I observe its dampness. Perhaps I can find some leaks somewhere in the ceiling of my room, and if I am successful in doing that, I promise, I wouldn’t hesitate not to pay a month’s rent to the property owner. And, if the owner of the flat tries to act tough, I will blow his head… just kidding.

Oh this weather! Oh the suffering! I’ve received a chilly greeting from the very beginning of this chilly season. Oh winter, why haven’t you been nice to me this time? Some may like this season, some may not. But no matter you like it or not, it will keep recurring year after year, as so has always been the nature (quality) of nature from time immemorial.

Chest cold, and I’m coughing like some hardcore smoker coughs. I’ve a high body temperature, headache, runny nose (I’ve to sniff every time). My throat pains. My tonsil is hurting. This noisy explosion of air from my lungs is unbearable, to me as well as to the bystanders. At a distance do my friends move, as if they might get hurt, as if a bullet chases them. Perhaps they’ve started considering me a boor by now. “Go away, then, you might be shredded into pieces by the bullet coming out of me.” I want to say but I don’t say. It will make things worse, I know.

And I think bum is the wrong place for a boil, for the area is very sensitive and the pain is excruciating. Had it been in other areas of the body such as the hands or the legs or maybe the shoulder I wouldn’t have complained a wee bit. However, I would have equally complained, had the boil made its place beneath my nose (this area too is extremely sensitive), or on my face, I fear it would damage the handsomeness of my precious face ( ha! – that’s a joke).

I’m not sure if any of these diseases and infections got anything to do with winter, but, since, all these have been making my life miserable in this season of the year, I have no choice but to curse this season, at least this time. Even a little pain in this season seems unbearable. But, I’m pretty sure, married couple or newly wedded couple would prefer winter than summer. I still have enough time for it, I guess.

Today is our Republic Day (that is the 26^th January, here in India). The secondary school near my house has organized a function. I can hear the loud music coming out of the speakers. I can also feel the vibration that is produced by the dancers stamping on the wooden stage (wooden? Yes, that’s what my brother told me, and I gladly believe him, as he had been to the function a little earlier). But I cannot go out and be a part of the celebration; I’m homebound, as for now. I have become so weak that I can’t even walk to and fro. I can just sit in the chair, that too, turning more towards the left side. Why? Because of the damn boil! Oh, this small swollen thing has made my life pathetic. Anyway, I hope everything will be fine soon.