It was a regular Saturday afternoon. Mr.R was out of town for the weekend. It seemed that these days he was away most of the time. Mrs.B was finally getting ready to go the department. Lately, it seemed she was always at the department. Was it only yesterday when she had promised that this weekend she would stay away from work? She had decided that tomorrow she will finish writing that letter to mammam. It was taking forever. Bijoya would soon be over and the letter would remain unposted. There was a painting half finished. Mr.R said he would like one of her paintings. But Mr.R was never was around. But she decided that she would finish that painting anyways. It was looking almost interesting. Considering that she hasn't been drawing since the last..6 years. And she used to be almost good at it!
Today morning, as soon as she woke, she remembered urgent things which just had to be done: laundry, cooking, grading copies, running samples. It felt good that so many students were trying to attend her section. She was improving. But the sample runs were draining her energy. She wished that the blanks would be low enough so that she could run more samples. Certainly over Thanksgiving she would find time for that letter and the painting....
Right now, however, she was not thinking about anything. Morning coffee was strong. Mr.R was fine. She called him the first thing in the morning. She had called home. Everything seemed to be in order. She was looking through her closet trying to find out an outfit. There was nothing special scheduled today. No one would be at the lab. But it was her habit to rummage her closet for something nice. Finally, she decided on a tight pair of jeans and the new high neck white sweater she bought from Marshall's the other day. She would look fetching in that. She smiled at her reflection and started donning the outfit. She was humming a tune..what was it? ....
With a final dab of perfume on her wrist (this was a new one from Body shop) she looked out. How dark the sky looked. It was drizzling!! Arggg....
Was it drizzling from the morning? Desktop Weather did not show it. She had to uninstall that program. It was just using a lot of the RAM. Oh! Maybe she had checked only the temperature. It showed a mild 17C.
Her trench coat was torn. It was from a second hand shop. Bought the year she first came to the States. She hated carrying the umbrella. And she hated wearing gum boots. The feet just got too hot. So why did she buy them? Why is it that she wore gum boots when she did not like them and why was she even thinking of an umbrella? Why! not long back, she never used to carry an umbrella. She used to love getting drenched. Oh! How many times had she been reprimanded for getting home drenched. Mammam used to get so angry when she had to take the mud out of the jeans. She remembered the late afternoon laboratory classes. She would sit there irriratedly, wishing she was outside when the rains came. She would hurry through her class just to be out in the rain.
She looked out...and it was drizzling..and she remembered that red dusty road to her house. During downpours a small rivulet of water drained that road and she would put little boats in the stream. How the outlines of her house used to appear blurred in the rain as she would bike home. She thought of the street along the hostel. The 2.2 road. She would be walking along that road with rain in her eyes. No body would be around..well almost. And she would sing out loud. "Singing in the rain"?
She sat looking out of the window. In her new high neck sweater, wearing a nice perfume with an umbrella in her hand and gum boots by the door. She was smelling the red dust road when first rains fell and her eyes were full of rain. They left her cheeks streaked...and she remembered that it was Saturday afternoon...and it was just starting....she might just finish the letter and the painting after all.
Photograph by Atreyee Bhattacahrya
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