Grey ,Rainy Grey ...

It’s a white rainy day today . Right now there’s a brief lull and everything is white – the sky is chock-a-block with gigantic white clouds and all the water puddles and glass high rises are reflecting it .For a bit , you can even imagine it being Narnia with its perpetual winter . The drizzle murmured through the windows as we rode the morning bus to office, its moist breath against the panes condensing into tiny water rivulets that flowed happily along the roof and across the glass. The air is all wet and cold making noses quiver and people sniff away .  But yesterday ,it was totally grey . In the afternoon ,the rain flew into quite a rage ,roaring outside the house and coming down at us in a loud barrage . It seemed quite angry throwing down its might on the brown earth and the greenery , that the trees and plants seemed to shake under its weight . It drummed against the asbestos sheet roof of the neighbour’s house rhythmically ,the volume waxing to a crescendo and waning a little before peaking again like a war cry . The behavior seemed quite out of place for someone who was whispering sweet nothings to a dazed me through the bedside window just this morning ; wonder what set it off … and wondering , I wandered around the house, its insides all grey since the rain was not allowing even a stray ray of sunlight inside .  The mother cat and its very new-born kittens lay in a large wooden box outside the house in the car porch . There were four kittens and they really looked just like loafs of meat with their raw skins not yet covered with fur . The white cat had been straying ,totally pregnant and looking for some place to give birth and it chose our house to do the honours. That was five days ago and now the cat family was happily cuddled up together in its box home when the rain went mad all of a sudden . So I opened the door and leaned out of the verandah cooing into the box, “All ok guys ?” .She looked back at me with her green eyes unblinking , as round as saucer pans . Of course they were okay , they were underneath her and busy feeding themselves ..so I let them be ..I’m sure she values her privacy a lot . But hey , she doesn’t give two hoots about our privacy and walks right in like she always lived here . So I told her to just stay there in the porch and to call out or just meow when she was hungry and we will try and find something for her to eat and Bring it outside to her .. Cat , you can’t just walk into the house and raid our fridge ..cats are not allowed to do that . Well, I don’t think she listens to me anyways . Sigh ..  On our terrace , rows of clothes hung out to dry in the sun , lay limp and helpless on the clotheslines soaking in the rain . The rain happened so suddenly that by the time I had raced to the terrace , the water was already running through the clothes and I just stayed there at the door and watched. A layer of water collected on the terrace floor and flowed towards the pipe that took the water down to the ground. Fist sized raindrops fell on the water ,splashed and rose in the air scattering in all directions , whirled like a flamenco dancer and fell back on the floor ending its brief dance . I watched the rain drops dance for a while and sauntered off to watch the rain from each and every one of our windows and doors while the foamy air pressed in on me . The rain was coming down in sheets of water like someone had placed us in a basin and was pouring mug fulls of water on us ,the thunders like the reprimands to a kid to stand still while being given a bath.  It must have been evening by the time the rain died down ,but by the time the sun had also gone down and it indeed was a dark grey rainy day for the most parts of it .  PS: I am saying No to crackers this Diwali because :  1.I think I may have grown up after all for that 2.The environmental pollution , the smoke and the noise … uff ! 3.It scares the poor animals ,including strays . Read how it kills strays in thousands ,here