L - DIARY PAGE 29 SEPTEMBER 2002

DIARY PAGE 29 SEPTEBBER 2002

It was not the usual morning as it was a Sunday. The clock showed with
its hands that I was late by an hour. Through the window, cool sweet
breeze was blowing. Water fell on my face as though someone was
sprinkling it. As I looked out through the window I found it was
raining. I was not worried at all because I had decided to spend a
quiet day at home. Looking at the rain I started recollecting my
thoughts of one such rainy day.

Those days we were staying in a Port township on the eastern coast of
India. A small port from where mainly iron ores were loaded onto the
ships by means of conveyor belt to be exported. The local people were
very happy at the availability of foreign goods such as cameras,
wristwatches, imported foreign liquor bottles, and many such things
that the sailors wanted to sell off. Mostly they were used items but
the people felt proud that they possessed imported goods.

That was my first year in that town. During all those months of my stay
there I found that clouds would suddenly fly in and darken the sky,
pour down and then go away on their way. The local people were
accustomed with these passing showers. It was very common for the winds
to blow hard mostly. After all it was the sea-side.

The day I am speaking about is totally a different one. There was a
small field in front of our house. There were lots of those ugly
looking frogs who had housed there. Even in many places there were
holes on the ground and some people like rag pickers picked up courage
to put in their hands into the holes and got out a type of fish which
they ate. There were houses all around the field.

On that day, around eleven in the morning the winds started blowing
hard. Soon dark clouds could be seen hovering over the sky indicating
that soon they would come down as rain. The frogs started croaking.
Suddenly big drops of rain started falling on the ground making a noise
as though it was hammering the earth. The rains went on for a couple of
hours. By now the water had filled up the ground and its level had
risen on the roads and all around. Water was logged all around.

I had never been in such a situation earlier. I stepped out onto the
verandah and behold to my utter surprise I found, another half an
hour's rainfall and the water would enter into our house. Fear gripped
me. The field and the road looked like a running stream. I saw some
things floating and passing off in the water. Curiosity made me take a
closer look and then I found those string like things to be snakes.
These snakes were green and yellow in colour, about ten to fourteen
inches long, a little thicker than a middle finger. The scene was
frightening indeed as I felt that the snakes might enter into our house
if the water level rose any further. Looking sideways I saw my
neighbour and told him about my fear. In reply he said that they were
water snakes and not harmful.

Another astounding sight caught my eyes. Those big ugly frogs in the
small water logged field looked magnificent for they suddenly changed
their colour. They changed their colour in front of me from the ugly
muddy brown to a bright green. What a scene to behold before your eyes.
What a sight I witnessed a rare thing. These frogs suddenly became
unimaginably beautiful; they looked like pictures from a book. Such is
the beauty of nature: astounding. A fantastic sight held before my
eyes, if anyone else would have told me a sense of disbelief would have
been created, but what when everything was there before my eyes.

Soon the harsh rain slowed down and fell as a drizzle. It was at this
time some people were moving about in their shorts, rain-coats,
gum-boots, gloves and a plastic bag in their hand. They were going
around the places where the water had collected into small pools. These
people were not the locals but some South East Asian sailors who most
probably belonged to the ships that had docked at the harbour. They
moved about in the water and started collecting the frogs which had now
turned green in colour, into their bags and carried them back to their
ships. Later on I learnt from the locals that these frogs would be
cooked into a delicious dish very much liked and relished by them. Any
way thinking of even eating frog meat is not my cup of tea.

Soon the rain stopped. The water drained out and the sun came up
evaporating the ground water and drying the atmosphere all around. I
found those big frogs that had been able to save their lives from the
hands of those hunters, were again back into their ugly dirty
colour.

I felt very happy that at least I could see something very unique that
happens only in nature on particular days. These memories do sometimes
refresh the mind and work out past thoughts to make one feel happy.
Also words can captivate such scenes and keep them alive.

Today I spent a lot of time reading, cosily tucked away in my bed. Hope
to finish this book by tomorrow.

The day was nice and wonderful. The family dinner was lively with chats
and laughs.

Snugged into bed, said my prayers and went off to sleep with a very
happy mind and pleasant thoughts.

11.15 p.m.