It did rain then.

Contributor: Shashank Kalra

Back in childhood days, they showed on TV
It rained whenever an important thing was to happen
When Lord Krishna was born
When lovers were parted
When wars were to be fought
When Zoobie Doobie happened in 3 Idiots
When Anil Kapoor and Madhuri did that dance
Rains make it more special, I always thought

It rained too, then
When an important thing happened with us, with me
This last September
It was a sacred day, Teacher's Day
We touched and were touched in return by the day's holinees

Amidst concrete-ness of Delhi
The place where the important thing happened was tree-ly
The map to the venue was washed with rain
A lot of us had sparkles of raindrops on our face
Hair were wet
On the way dogs just found some shade
Keeping one foot after the other, once in a while parched in wet mud
I discovered a round dome like structure
I thought it must have been there for long years
And then the important thing happened

Without many noticing, we together gave birth to this tiny organism
And have been nurturing it ever-since
With the love of a mother, and care of a father
With the spirit of a family and vision of a world
We called it ONUS, I love the name.

Today too is a sacred day
It was Porbandar then in that year,
It is in Delhi this year, where this organism turns a month old

Ahh! I will need pages and pages to describe what this organism means to me
Why I enjoy being with it
Why being crazy with it, feels like normal
How, so naturally I just became a part of it
How my days pass with it, without me noticing
Or sometimes, noticing things that I never noticed
What this journey of creating and becoming mean to me.

Some people call it running away from reality
Our friends for 20 years, at-least they call themselves that, call it risky craziness
They tell us 'don't spoil your career', we so want to tell them, we are making ourselves
Careers will automatically be taken care of

But we will trust them to explain themselves what it is, at just the right time
Till then, we will just keep this organism growing
Nurturing it slowly but steadily

In the beginning, it made me get up at 5
I don't remember when I saw sunrise last
Once while it was drizzling we were pulling out weeds that were wet
It was just a day that we all met
But it seemed like we had been friends since childhood
I loved putting my colorful hand-print, but my hand-print seemed too small compared to someone else's
You know, I love getting gifts, I got so many of them
One day we just sat discussing Trust
That night we walked and walked in the dark without fear amongst the trees
Talking didn't seem heavy

One day, we sat under historical bamboo, but there were so many mosquitoes with us
Thank God, I didn't catch Dengue, since then I have been carrying Odomos
I didn't know that in Ladakh, its reverse, Papa does Mama's work and Mama does Papa's
Some other day, one of us stepped into the shoes of a mentally challenged boy, I was flood victim
Its a little unfortunate, what happened in J&K
But this time, we didn't just donate clothes or money, we volunteered at Goonj, it was fulfilling
One day, we went out earning our breakfast
One day, we went out giving people free hugs

That ma'am was amazing, she embarrassed us, we felt awkward when used some abuses we use
But an hour later, we thought something we never thought about with such openness

I tell you, this organism has carved a special place in me
A part of me is with it always
You would call me a romantic, but its just getting deeper

It did rain then
And it meant something to me, to us!



It did rain then.
--
Know more about ONUS here: http://youthallianceofindia.org/onus/

Comments