Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Unheard of

The unheard of came slamming into my sleep. Last night, for the second night running, I woke to thunder and flashes of lightning - after a strange dream that someone was flashing a torch in my face, on and off, on and off. And the sounds of a susurrating piece of plastic, sliding from one end of the terrace to the other. It was like listening to a god howling through a gag.

It's rained! In May. And not the odd shower, but rain enough for an umbrella. Rain enough to bring muddy marks of slippers into the bedroom. Rain enough to have to watch out for cars whizzing past.

Rain so chill that when I woke up again, feeling cold and had to switch off then fan. And then, woke up again, feeling cold, so had to bring out a blanket, and stepped out of the house in a light-winter shirt. In Delhi. In May. Unheard of.

11 comments:

Mister Crowley said...

"susurrating"?
heh

Anonymous said...

man.. these are not my May memories from Delhi.. but yes thunderstorms there always scared me..

Matangi Mawley said...

i wish i had rains in my place too.. coz the heat is just unbearable over here, where i live..

u ve a good blog here..
keep writing!

Unknown said...

unheard of, but very welcome. :)

you have a very interesting blog over here. :)

Kits said...

Susurrating ...well, first time I am seeing it as part of a blogpost. First encounter with the word occured in GRE word list :) Its raining in Bumbai too but it gets unbearably hot here after!!

The Line of Beauty said...

These rains, or rather continued spell of rain and thunderstorm, made me difficult to relate to any past such incident, quite unlike when seasonal change brings back some old memories. I was at askance all the time, trying to memorize the sounds, the smells and the cool breeze

Anonymous said...

Wow, rains in saadi dilli.
Memories of those showers are back and i can smell the characteristic smell of the earth which fills the air with first showers.
O how i miss my dilli!

1conoclast said...

"like listening to a god howling through a gag"...

Impressive.

Anonymous said...

Ms. Zaidi,
I am a big big fan of your work! Your frontline article "India's shame" is my absolute favourite.
I'm now a journalist, working with Hindustan Times, Mumbai. A colleague and I have taken on a very ambitious project and would love to hear from you for some leads and possibly some help. I don't know how else to contact you so I used this blog instead. My number is 9930-156-658/(022) 6653-9254 Will you please get back to me whenever you can? We're really looking forward to hearing from you.
Vidya Venkataraman
Hindustan Times

R. said...

take the thunder! take the rains! take the cold!

spare a thought for those who fry in the chennai heat!

Anonymous said...

World is changing so is the weather...

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