Kaalboishakhi

The calmness, the wait, the smell of scorched air.

Shimmering stretches of interlaced asphalt amidst a dense outcrop of dull concrete. Harassed entities scampering mindlessly, cowering from the obstinate show of igneous fury. A desolation that transcends all attempts at comprehension. The city was engulfed by the fiery tentacles of an obdurate sun.

A pair of anxious eyes peered through a pane of tinted glass. They were oblivious to the depredations outside. She felt protected but somehow unsatisfied. “Do you think it’ll rain today?” she asked slowly turning towards him. Their eyes met for the first time. She had avoided his gaze all this while. His eyes pierced through her soul igniting an overwhelming sense of longing. Somewhere deep inside was a feeling of injustice.

The stirred tranquility, the hope, the smell of distant earths.

Horizons evanescing in the shadows of conspiring giants. Ravenous outcries blaze through the kindled heavens. Ominous, wicked, threatening. And yet alluring. The bleeding skies satiated the thirst of a parched earth. The trapped earth resounded with a cacophony of destruction.

She lay amidst the disheveled white linen with her head on his chest, staring at the rain beating against the tinted glass pane. She felt every roll of thunder, every flash of lightning. They reminded her of the emotional turmoil of the last hour. She was swept off her feet, ravaged and indelibly scarred. Now she felt protected and satiated. The longing had vanished, the injustice dispelled. His eyes were closed in a deceitfully peaceful sort of way. She felt an irresistible urge to close hers too and seal the moment for eternity.

The resurrection, the dream, the smell of wet grass.