End of May

May just passed by quietly (yes, the May that comes before June and after April).  Silently, without much happening for me.  I had been planning to visit Kolkata, but my boss didn’t see eye to eye with me.  He has different plans.  Well, the boss’s always right!!

The heat is just building up, even here in this small town of Alipurduar. However, I consider myself fortunate to have escaped the sweltering days of Kolkata summers!!  Oh! Those were the days!  Sweat trickling down my back, my arms, my forehead, and several other parts of my anatomy!! The travel through superheated concrete roads, the blast of summer air coming in through the open windows of the bus, and lastly the crowds, the body heat adding to the heat of the atmosphere.  Thank God, I am not a part of that lifestyle anymore.

The last day of this month just brought back an old memory from last year.  I was flipping around with some topics in my mind to write about when this memory came flooding back.  It must have been the heat and humidity which brought back this pleasant memory.

It was sometime last year, summer in Kolkata.  Vishal had been staying with us for a few days.  It was a Sunday, a Sunday afternoon.  It had just rained the day before and there were still patches of wetness here and there. As usual, there was a power-cut at home and so Vishal and I decided to go out somewhere and try to cool ourselves off.

We wandered off towards the playground which is just a few minutes’ walk away from our house.  The whole playground was wet from the previous night’s rain.  There was nobody playing there, it was all muddy and poodles of water had formed everywhere.  The sun was beginning to fall below the horizon throwing that beautiful violet hue to the sky that only a dusking sun can.  It was so pleasantly cool, in stark contrast to the sweltering day preceding that dusk.  Before we knew it, we had taken our shoes off and started walking around in the mud puddles, just like those kids in TV commercials do.  We wandered aimlessly talking about life, love, and hope, our feet firmly grounded in the muddy expanse.  The sensation of the cool, wet grass crushing under our feet and the natural mud packs we were giving ourselves just swept me away.  I enjoyed it so thoroughly.  As the light grew dimmer and dimmer, the joy increased manifold, there began to blow a cool breeze over the playground.  We finally decided to let go of all our hedonistic indulgences and head towards home.  We were muddy and soiled, but we didn’t mind……it was well worth it!!