The weather on that evening seemed fine. The sky was clear and some last rays of the sun at dusk complemented the clear sky to make a beautiful Sunday evening. "Beautiful!" I exclaimed while I rushed on to the streets to reach Jay's place. Taking some time off to cherish the nature is always given much lesser an impetus than watching the tennis open final with your best friend, especially when you are late.
The evening turned out to be even more beautiful with beer cans in our hands and Rafa managing a win in the final. That evening was the perfect one to take some pressure off from my head especially when it was preoccupied with exam fever. Our hungry tummies forced us to spend some more bucks on pizza as we ordered one and as expected the pizza reached before 30 mins. "cheers!" We screamed to celebrate our God's victory while we opened the second beer can. Beer, pizza, a beautiful evening, what else does one want from life, but as usual, life always has a little bit more to offer.
While having the pizza, I heard the roaring of clouds. I predicted that it would turn out to be a mild shower. However, the rains continued for the next six hours and had a definite impact on the place where my hostel is situated, being one of the most low lying areas in the city. An hour later, I left Jay's place hoping the rain would stop soon and took a rickshaw to station. On the way, the rain didn't stop and I soon realized that my prediction had failed miserably. I now anticipated some water clogging in the hostel area as well as a traffic jam. The rickshaw wallah dropped me at the station and then I had a long struggle to find another one to my hostel.
Finally, a generous rickshaw wallah agreed to drop me at the nearest chowk to our hostel. Sitting in the rickshaw, I mentally prepared myself for getting wet in the rain. On one hand, I could sense that ecstasy inside me to get wet in the rain while I didn't want to fall sick due to the approaching exams. I finally reached the chowk, paid the fare and started walking in the rain.
"Hey!" A voice called me from behind. I looked behind to find a tall guy in formal wear, holding an umbrella. He was like a messiah who had arrived to rescue me from this atrocious weather. "Come along!" he said and gestured me to hurry up. I hurried up and we started waking ahead. "Unpredictable this weather gets!" I exclaimed completely out of exasperation. "Yeah! But it gets beautiful when you have an umbrella along with you." he smiled. The first thing I was forced to notice about him was his composure. He seemed completely unaffected of a weather change. He looked so familiar, I had a strong hunch that I had met him before. "Isn't it?" He raised an eyebrow waiting for me to speak up.
"Look at the water man! My shoes are getting wet" I said as I necessarily wanted to rant about the rains. He laughed in reply. "Engineering student you seem to be" he said. "Yes! You predicted that out of my frustration?" I said and smiled. "Yes! Obviously" he said. We had a small chat on the way, he had to go the lane adjacent to my hostel. I always found that lane scary, completely dark, devoid of any street light. He had completed his Diploma in Civil engg. and was working at a leading cement manufacturing company.
While we were about to reach the hostel, he asked me something that shocked me. "How is Ankit? Is he still on with the one he was, six months ago?" he laughed and looked away. That laughter was predictable! It was him, Gaurav, my room partner who died in an accident some months ago. He was about to complete his Diploma and had also got a job offer from the same company. "Time to go brother, was missing you like hell! Take care" he said, dropping the umbrella on the ground and ran faster than even the best of athletes. He soon disappeared in the dark lane. I gathered some courage to look at the umbrella. It had a tag on it which read "Pinaki Acharya, 2011" . It was the first umbrella that I bought in my college life and soon lost it!. I had tears in my eyes while I collected the umbrella and looked at the dark lane. His words continued to echo in my ears.
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