JUST NOW

By Gitanjali Kaul

Just now… I can smell the earthy fragrance of the first rain on dry parched land.

I can see (or am I just sensing it?) the scene after a good monsoon shower that happened around noon …. It’s later in the evening … the road is strewn with fallen neem leaves … the smell – or is it just the essence of it at the back of my mind? For I can’t actually smell it … and yet I can feel it….

Just now … the sky is grey – still overcast with the promise of more showers. As I walk along the road, I step on the bitter fruit of the neem – the nibauri and I look around to see the road dotted with many more nibauris as also twigs and branches of the trees lining the path. It seems it was quite a storm but apparently it brought relief…

Just now …I can sense people out for a walk… kids splashing in the shallow puddles, squealing with delight …

And as soon as I begin to find comfort in the scene …it’s gone – the feeling , the sensation… the essence – vanished as it was never there…

I’m back in my office …in front of my computer  within the conditioned environ with winter outside my window …

And all that remains is a lingering sense of a good feeling … a memory tucked away safely in the recesses of my mind…!