The tears of the sky are one of the most beautiful gifts to us by the systems and forces of nature. Well, technically, rain is just one among the countless natural phenomena, but it finds glorification due to the poemworthy and soothing effects it leaves us with. This generalisation, I believe, must be very relative, for in places like Mawsynram (place with the highest rainfall in the world) people must have grown very accustomed to them.

          Nevertheless, the upshots of almost any rain in the world are phenomenal. The smell of earth is inebriating, the colour of air, of sky, is quite changed – turned shades cooler – and both men and trees seem to have grown taller. Every noise sounds rhythmical, every light shines appealingly, every smell is tinged with a special effect pleasing to the nose. When you open your mouth and breathe, the air tastes delicious. You get shivers all over the limbs, and they feel great.

          In the only seemingly unpleasant results of rain – poodles, especially the ones mismatched with the environment – children find special pleasure. Children, after all, somehow can find pleasure in everything, with only numbered exceptions.

          Therefore rain – particularly the rain at hotter regions – is one of those which can give overflowing emotions to even the grown men. Such is the elegance of mountains, of rivers, of lakes, of a starry sky. Seems as though God made these things with this idea in mind that man would get fatigued occassionally, and would need some rest in the lap of nature. A slightly wet park with a grey sky, the banks of a river or stream, the real sight of rolling hills or snowcapped mountains … all seem to be the laps of nature.

          No artificial pleasure, in a long run, with great intensity, can equal the natural ones.

          When humans start conquering other planets, and life will start flourishing on them, one of the things we are going to miss for some time initially will be the earthly atmosphere, those waterfalls, those valleys, those rains. Maybe we create similar atmospheres there, or find planets that have one already … or maybe, the pleasures there will be greater than those of earth – who knows! Yet at the end of the day, the bestest of the best gifts are going to be the gifts by nature.

          And one of the best phenomena the upshots of a pleasant rain.

Add caption

          A group of youngsters are working on a project. The organisation they are associated with has launched some new mission the pilot of which has been successful, and these youngsters have been told to script and shoot a few videos advertising the mission. The videos are going to be shared over social media.

          Script is written on time – two of them – and the camera-person gets the set prepared. The scene is of a young girl sitting on a desk, against the backdrop of a books almirah on the right and a the right half of a white board on the left. The video is going to be made in shots. Some shots get taken successfully. At this point, one of us is checking the previous shots and some person from the organisation enters the room. He sees the shots and notices the empty white board in the background.

          ‘No offense meant, but don’t you guys think this white board looks a bit empty? You could’ve taken a better setting...’

          Instantly the video editor, who sat close buy, spoke up: ‘This empty board is deliberate! You see, it’ll be used to display clips and pictures related to the mission. Otherwise, we would have to do with small, pocket-sized corners. That would be cumbersome. This white board is the best thing!’

          Two eyes may see one thing at the same time, from the same angle, very differently, sometimes contrary to each other. What one sees as disorder or complaint in something, the other may find in it a big, big opportunity. For an inexperienced, for a pessimistic, a white board will be spoiling the elegance of the video, and for the opportunist and optimist, the white empty space will look like room for adding extra content.

          Opportunities have a massive wardrobe. You can never appropriately guess the garb in which an opportunity is going to ring the bell at the door. A seasoned wise man, an opportunist, knows that the best way to recognise an opportunity rightly is to start finding opportunity in everything. For an ordinary man, not being able to fly is a limitation, a problem; for Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright, it is an opportunity to make an invention. For one man, a long journey is a trouble, because he is afraid he will get tired, and for the other, it might be an opportunity to read or listen to a book, attend a long call, do some research or learn something new.

          Nevertheless, one special thing about this hide-and-seek game with opportunities is that they can also choose for hiding an empty canvas, a still scene, and a blank page.

          I’m sure it must be the size of my hand: from the tip of my middle finger to the onset of my wrist. The colour of wet soil, this lizard was in my room last two nights, barring me from doing much work there. My table is next to a wall, the wall which features the tube-light. I sometimes forget to close the window to the room in the evening, and seeking light, clouds of mosquitoes invade in. And so they allure lizards. Where there is a mosquito, there is a lizard.

          Therefore it sat from me at a distance less that minimum for social distancing. It zoomed from here to there undauntedly with enormous velocity, making prey the blood-sucking flying insects. I knew I wouldn’t last longer in this situation.

          I remember once there was a stubborn lizard in our bathroom, and I didn’t bathe that day until the lizard was scared away with water spray, peacock feather and other whatnots.

          So the first night, I shifted to the other room and completed my work there, hoping above hope that next day, the room would be mine.

          Next day the count of lizards had gone up to three. Two on that wall and one stealing in through a small slit in a window. I slapped my forehead, picked up my books and shifted to the other room. I had nearly given up – my home and my room. I wouldn’t ever get the room back from these invaders. Soon they would develop a colony here, and we would have to donate the room to them.

          The third morning, that is today, now, I have woken up full of zeal, determined to do something to these colonialists. No, I’m not going to give away my room so easily. And to lizards? No, not by any means.

          After having tended to my chores, I stepped into the room, sought the nearest, longest thing I could (an umbrella) and like a lion reclaiming lost territory, tried to shoo the lizard away from the wall. I saw only one at the moment. Don’t know if there was left only one, or the other two were still in the room, hidden. I constantly check near my feet, because I can sense mosquitoes.

          Hence I have been successful in getting back my room, my table, my princedom, my empire. No lizard is going to impede my work now, I have the umbrella geared up with me.

          But as I reflect on this whole story as I type it, I wonder if what I have done is right. We humans have no claim over any part of the earth. Today if there were a jungle around here, a plethora of creatures would find survival in it besides humans. But thinking that since we have made the buildings, houses and roads, we have got the ownership of this part of earth, trying to get rid of stray dogs, cows, cats, cockroaches, flies and birds.

          No, I tell myself, the earth is a part of the commonwealth of all the creatures. Every tiniest of the tiny creatures has the right to live, right to ensure survival, right to go near a tube-light and collect dinner. I feel guilty, slightly regretful of my action, but more than that of my thinking. How cruel!

          I gulp and look at the opposite wall where perches that palm-sized lizard, looking at the glowing light, with sporadic glances at me too. Were it not for the creeps it gives me, I would have carried this lizard on my hand and transported it to the tube-light wall. Were it not for the creeps…