Early morning musings
My head feels heavy and foggy as I step out barefoot from my dark room. As I walk near the living room, the adjoining corridor starts to brighten up by the soft dim light. The sunlight streams through the plain chocolate-brown double-layered thick window curtain. The six-sitter rectangular wooden dining table with a glass top has a pair of ceramic salt and pepper shaker and glass jars filled with cookies, snacks, namkeen, and pickle. The wall joins the window, shows the time 8:20 am, on a Hogwarts black station wall clock, placed few inches below the ceiling. Moving, past them, within a few steps, there’s another set of plain chocolate-brown curtains.
As I drape the curtain, a sliding glass door opens the out view of the balcony. The cool breeze gushes inside just when I start to slide the door. The cool breeze gently brushes my skin and plays with my hair. Moving into the open, the chirping of the birds shuts down the light traffic noise coming from the main road. With closed eyes, breathing slow and deep, the earthy smell, emanating from the wet soil and the fresh smell of dampness, from the concrete walls fills up my senses.
Opening my eyes, I see the patches of grey clouds in the sky. Some patches are dark, and some are light grey in shades. The mismatch between them has a tone of dusty pink with a golden tinge, highlighted by a small patch of white clouds.
The birds are flying high in the sky. Some of them are sitting across the building. A flock of birds sit on the roof, where the building meets the sky. The rest are seated on the window bars, on the outstretched window platform, and on top of pined dried clothes that are gently being swayed by the wind.
The grey pigeons outnumbered the white pigeons, green Indian parrots, crows, goriya (old world sparrows), and common mynas. On one of my window platforms, a white pigeon is surrounded by grey pigeons. All of a sudden, a crow dashes in, and the pigeons fly to other spots. A part of that troop joins the pigeons on the semi-dome shaped rooftop of a club house. The buildings nearby is visited by the same white pigeon on the rooftop where it joins a small group of three green parrots.
In the same building, a father and a daughter taking turns skipping in their balcony. The daughter is wearing an orange top, teamed up with printed pink pyjamas. The father is wearing a mustard coloured t-shirt with black track pants. Another man is jogging in black t-shirt and black track pants with white strips. His shoes is black with white base colour. As he jogs, he greets his fellow joggers. He runs through the dry and wet patches on the concrete pathway. Suddenly, he looked up in the sky and so did I. We noticed scattered rainfall, slowly giving ways to a drizzle but he continued jogging.
Within a fraction of seconds, the drizzle turns to heavy rainfall. The joggers changed their direction of their run. Now, they are running for a shelter in the parking lot. All at once, people are quickly collecting their dried clothes from their balconies. Within no time, they moved inside. The father and daughter left the balcony too. The birds left the rooftop of the clubhouse to find shelter on window bars and platforms.
In midst to all of this, the rain carries the aroma of tea coming from the same floor from the next building. A young couple walks in their balcony. The wife is holding two tea mugs in her hands and the husband carries two outdoor plastic chairs. He takes the cups from his wife, giving her the time to adjust her chair. He sits down and passes the tea mug to her just when she finds a comfortable position. The man outstretches his legs and the woman, curls up her leg close to her belly. Sipping the tea, they gaze out to enjoy the rain. He looks up in the sky, watching the sight of few birds flying and she watches the rain.
Simultaneously, I hear the rainfall pitter-pattering of in my balcony when, the momentum abruptly ends from a phone call from my boss!
Contributor: Kavita Srivastava
About our Writing Program Student
Kavita Srivastava (35) holds a degree in MBA. She’s an avid reader of business strategies, digital marketing strategies, mythology, mystic and fine arts with a focus on content marketing. In her spare time, she loves to spend time with nature and animals. Some day, she wishes to adopt a puppy with whom she can go hiking and jogging. Currently, she’s pursing a career in digital content marketing.
