Ravi crawled through the mosquito net and stumbled out of bed. He had had a restless, sleepless night interrupted by flashes of lightning and loud claps of thunder. He slowly trudged towards the window and opened it slightly. It was still dark outside. It was still raining.
Just a few weeks ago he was hoping and praying for the rains to come. He was done with the unbearable summer heat, the incessant sweat, the nauseating stench of rotting garbage, the hot blasts of wind in the afternoon that kicked up swirling whirls of dust and the dry and oppressive and suffocating heat of the night which rendered the tiny ceiling fan, whining and creaking at maximum speed, useless.
And now that the rains were here, he couldn’t wait for them to go away. It had rained incessantly the day before and the day before that. It had been more than a week since he had seen the sun.
“Ravi, chalo, move, you’re going to be late for school” he heard his mother shout from the kitchen. By the time he ate his breakfast and got ready for school the rain had eased up a bit. With his backpack tightly wrapped in tarp he was about to get on his bike when he realized he had forgotten his raincoat. He hated riding his bike with a raincoat on and it stank like a dirty, wet towel, so he stuffed it in his backpack. His regular school shoes were still damp so he rummaged through the shoe box and pulled out his gumboots. They were covered with dust and cobwebs and smelled like worn rubber, pungent, like stale bread. He turned them over and shook them as hard as he could and a couple of cockroaches came scurrying out. He shook them a few more times before shoving his feet in, his toes jamming against the tip.
The ride to school took about twenty minutes, and looking at his Casio watch he realized there were less than fifteen minutes before the assembly bell rang. Pedaling furiously, weaving through traffic and maneuvering deftly around potholes he thought he was making good time, but then he felt the first drops of rain. He peddled faster. But the rain started coming down harder. He was still a good two kilometers away and getting wet fast. He stopped at the bus stop near Pool Gate and pulled out his raincoat. It felt cold and damp and as he struggled to push his wet arms through, the little tear near the armpit ripped right across the seam. As he examined the damage a truck speeding through a deep puddle doused him with an avalanche of brown, muddy, chai like water. Dripping from head to toe, dirty water snaking down his back and spitting out mud that caked his face he held back his tears and steadied himself. He looked at his watch. Seven minutes. He could make it. He got on his bike again. The torn raincoat flapped in the wind like the cape of a superhero. The rain slashed across his face and blinded him, but he kept peddling on. The bike bounced off potholes and the water spinning off the rear wheel sprayed his back, but he kept peddling on. Just a minute away from school, he banked a little too sharply at the turn near Babajaan chowk and skidded off the road, his bike sliding in one direction and his body hurtling in the other. Someone shouted “Are you okay?” His elbows and knees were bruised, but other than that he was okay. His bike was not. The front wheel had come off and the chain seemed to be broken. He limped to the bike and lifted it up on his shoulder.
By the time he reached school the gates were closed. It was still raining quite heavily so he left his bike by the gate and climbed over. He walked towards the principal’s office and knocked on the closed door. He looked back at the quadrangle where the morning assembly took place. It was empty. The corridors of the school lining the classes were empty too. Despite the noise that the pounding ran made there was a serenity about it. He stepped away from the principal’s office and walked to the middle of the quadrangle. He removed his raincoat and threw it away. He kicked his gumboots loose. He looked up at the sky and felt the rain strike his face. He closed his eyes, stretched his arms out and whirling like a madman embraced the rain.