Rain

It looked like rain, she mused. Then shifted the huge lollypop in her mouth and drew it out to examine her handiwork. The big ball of tamarind, jaggery and chilly powder had shrunk rapidly, and the green twig it was stuck on seemed longer. Satisfied, she laid it tenderly on the concrete slab she was sitting on and picked up her latest possession- the stalk of a papaya leaf through which she could blow soap bubbles. Or so she thought. Right now that hollow tube held out a world of possibilities.

She was a very strange specimen to find in a house chock full of scholars. Actually, she would have been strange just about anywhere. Her hair was worn very long for a five year old and no power on earth could tame it. It flew about her head in an oily, messy tangle. The only garment she would consent to wearing was a petticoat her mother had stitched. Shoes were repelled by any and every means. Wild - eyed, gap- toothed and grubby, our heroine is hardly what you might call endearing.

She clambered down from the wall and trudged her way across the overgrown garden, past the tire-swing. through the opening in the compound wall. And immediately found herself in a world of towering trees that netted out the sun. The ground was thick with dead leaves. A ripe jackfruit had crashed to the ground somewhere close by, she could smell the musky-sweet scent in the air. But this was no place to loiter so she charged madly through the thicket till she burst upon the house at its heart.

It was an ancient home built by her great - great- (great?)-grandfather in the typical Naalukettu style of Kerala. A house of four corridors with an open courtyad at the centre. She knew better than to bang on the immense brass studded door. A cursory glance into the huge well to check on the fishes and then into the kitchen to meet Rajivelliamma (Aunt Raji would be a very pompous translation.)

"Oh you're back!" exclaimed the old lady, her pale face settling into its familiar wrinkles. But her voice was drowned out as the sky cracked open loudly, and the kid jumped unceremoniously into Rajivelliamma's faded sari. "Ayye! Dont tell me you're scared of thunderstorms! A big thing like you??"

Before she knew it the girl was dragged through the gloomy, dusty corridors into the sudden brightness of the inner courtayd, the Nadumuttam. The rain was pelting down in earnest now. She watched from behind a mammoth teak pillar as Rajivelliamma stepped gingerly into the sunken courtayrd and blocked the water outlet. And then she was yanked into it.

The child gasped as she hit the cold water. She spluttered and looked up at the sky, blinking and wincing as the hard drops hit her eyes. She looked down, fascinated by the sight of her petticoat filling up like a white parachute around her. And in no time at all she was squealing and shrieking with laughter as she splashed around.

It was one of the happiest days of my life. :)