Surprise but I can't help it

With the first shower of rain, the sudden memories of that visit to Nainital come to my mind. I know that such feelings are awkward and not realistic after so many decades, but can I help when it happens to my mind as it looks towards the sky, and recalls that strange experience?

  
The rain always brings with it the feeling of those days when I saw her on the next balcony. I feel as if I get lost in her memory whenever it rains, especially while sitting on a balcony all alone. The drops of rain become a melody and start humming their own love story in my ears, and I keep absorbing that story drop by drop looking at the clouds in the sky. I look at the earth as it absorbs the drops of rain into itself.

It happened decades ago when I went to Nainital for a pleasure trip, and I was not married then. I stayed in a small hotel built on a hill opposite Naini Lake because I always stayed in the same hotel as I liked it for its completely peaceful environment. It was the month of June, and the weather was fine, neither cold nor hot. Incidentally, Nainital is about 7,000 feet above sea level.

After having breakfast in the morning, I would go out for a walk on the surrounding green hills. Sometimes I would sit quietly under a tree for hours, which was my favorite pastime, and take photos from my basic AGFA camera with a 120 film role and shoot a few photos. I still have them but they are not worth posting.

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On the third day, it started raining lightly, and the weather became cold. The next day, the rain was a little heavier. I stood on the balcony with a cup of hot tea and started admiring the beauty of the lake.

Suddenly, amidst the melody of the drops, a melodious voice filled my ears. I looked around. A girl was standing on the next balcony of her room. She was humming an old romantic song. It was obvious that she had not seen me.

Wearing a light green suit, she herself looked like part of the beautiful greenery of the surrounding hills. She spread her arms and opened her palms outside the balcony. The drops of rain started playing a melody on her palms.

A light fog had descended on the treetops, and in the mysterious surroundings of that beautiful morning, she looked like an angel descended right from the clouds. She was humming a love song, engrossed in herself, oblivious to everyone, including me.

I closed my eyes and got lost in her lovely tune. She had a sweet voice, which was humming a very lovely romantic song on the rhythm of raindrops.

After some time, suddenly her attention turned towards me, and she felt a bit shy and stopped singing. I told her that she sang very well, and then a very sweet smile came on her face. We started talking formally. She said she had come to visit Nainital with her mother, but today her mother had a high fever, so both of them were in the room.

The next day, the rain stopped. I was going out for a walk when suddenly she came in front of me and asked if I was going towards the market. When I said yes, she said that she had to buy her mother's medicines and one or two essential things, so can she come with me? Hehe, do you think I would object?

Walking on the wet road along the Naini Lake, we reached the market crossing the Maidan, the Naini stadium. She took her mother's medicines from the medical store, and we came back. I don't know what charm she had or if it was just that age that I was feeling uncomfortable. Perhaps it was love at first sight. It seemed to me that this road would never end and she would keep walking with me on that wet road for the rest of my life.

It started drizzling a little. She started humming the music of drops again. When her green kurta would flutter in the wind and touch me, my body would shiver, and my mind felt a shock wave. That night in my dreams, a green color kept touching me, and I felt it would enter into my existence.

The next day I left for Bhimtal and had to stay there because I got late and missed the last bus, which was suspended due to heavy rain. When I came on the next day, they had gone. I had not even taken their address. That night I left Nainital and returned to Delhi.

Now that evening drenched in the music of drops dominates my entire life. Even today, whenever it rains, I feel she will come suddenly and sing a romantic song sitting close to me, but now her face looks different, but surprisingly it resembles that of my wife's face.

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