The Rain & I have shared a strong liking for years. The sound of its drizzle, the pouring water, the serenity from the cool breeze outside, the possibility of our supplications being accepted by Allah during this time frame, and everything else combined never fails to make my heart smile during rain.
Like every other day, I woke up with the screeching sound of my phone alarm. As soon as I dismissed it with my eyes barely open, the thundering sound of lightning shook me. I opened the curtains to find the gloomy grey clouds in the sky staring back at me as it poured rain heavily, beginning to flood outside. After freshening up, I made myself a hot cup of frothy coffee and sat facing the balcony to watch the rain with the phone in my hand. My peers and peers and others flooded my newsfeed with posts and pictures of various things related to rain. There were one-liners, poems, sketches, music, photographs of khichuri, mugs of steamy tea/coffee, and countless selfies with rain as their backdrop. The heart felt warm, just like my coffee, as it smiled relentlessly seeing all these.

Fast forward a couple of hours, sitting in the same place with my phone and a cup of chamomile tea, this time before hitting the bed, and I scrolled my newsfeed to find it looked different, contrary to what was in the morning. There were pictures of roadblocks, drowning houses and people, struggling moments with commute cum traffic, and everything dark, like the roaring gloomy clouds in the sky outside my balcony. Tears fell in my heart like the rain falling outside seeing all these. The stark reality of life’s components having its odds and evens hit hard as it was no different for “the rain” as well. Then again, as life happens, we learn to overcome and live with hope. Hence when it’s raining, we have to put up with the rain and the mud if we want to see a beautiful rainbow in the same sky.