RAIN

It always rained in Rehan's hometown. He lived with his mom in an old house that they had inherited.His lost his dad when he was a small kid.He had fragments of memory relatin to his fathers death. He remembers a white painted van , a man's body with cotton squeezed into his nose, sandal sticks fuming on either sides and his moms arms, holding him tight as her tears rained all over his face...............

Rehan had to wake up now and run to school, his school was 28 kms from his house. His mom was always particular about his education. She wanted to give him the best she can afford. The school he studied was the best school in the district. Now he had get out of his bed otherwise his mom would start screaming at him. He folded the bed sheets then brushed, bathed, dressed and ran for the bus. His mom was employed so breakfast was always a luxury. It was raining that day too.He had to change three buses to reach his school and three railway crossings came en route and all these troubles were compounded with rain. He loathed it, the noisy deluge which made his path dank and dirty which made the sewers flood the road .Rain unchained the evil in men. In buses older men would stick close to him. Somedays he had pushed them away, somedays he had hit them with his lunch kit and somedays he had sobbed silently, he wished his father was there to protect him, he wished he could stop this vicious downpour.

 Rehan loved music, he had a huge cd collection, he would arrange and rearrange it everyday. Sometimes he even used to steal money from his moms purse to buy them.He was alone but music gave him solitude. He would always remember which song is from which movie ,who sung it ,who was the music director ,the lyricist ,everything. But his memory lagged when it came to the temporal matters, for instance he would always misplace his umbrella and lose it eventually. He would never tell his mom about this coz he knew the dire consequence it would lead to.After days seeing her son always wet his mom would find out the truth and then he would be slapped,whipped,flogged,caned , she would hit him with anything she could find when she was angry and she was always angry for something or the other. Sometimes when he scored less in the exams he was caned until blood oozed out of his veins, he would beg her to stop but she never did. One day, after years of this torture ,he grabbed the cane from his mothers hand and broke it to pieces, to tiny bits, to molecules, to atoms. His mom stopped hitting him after that. Rehan got into a good college and he owed this to his mother , she put every penny she had earned and saved into his education. He left his house and started enjoying his newly gained freedom. He would often ask his mom to put money in his account and everytime she'd put double the amount he had asked for. While in college he hardly went home .He would always make some excuse and would stay there itself even during vacations. He knew his mom was alone old and miserable now but still he dint bother to pay her a visit..

 Rehan graduated, got a job and he was home for a brief period. It was raining that night when his mom started shouting at him for no reason , her loneliness had made her insecure and bilious. He was a man now, he did not like being oppressed. He roared back. He said things after which he dint deserve to call her 'mother'.She threw his cd collection out into the rain. He ran out searching for them in the dark, hoping to salvage as much as possible. Tears ran down his cheeks but the rain washed them away........ The next day Rehan walked out of that house, walked out of his town and came to his new city where he would work where he had friends and above all where he was independent. It never rained in his suburb and he was pleased about that.Months passed , he dint even call his mother once. He had forgotten about her. But in that city he could never turn his back to a woman begging for help or for money, he would empty his wallet for them..

 One night he was sleeping and in his subconscious he could faintly hear the rain's percussion over the roof. He suddenly woke up and yelled "Maaaaaaaaa......."but there was no response, there was silence and rain. It was raining in the city for the first time since he came . It was dark there was no power, he made his way to the door , got out of his house and the rain was heavy , he couldn see his neighborhood, everything was veiled by it. He took his cell and dialed his landline, it rang once, twice, thrice and someone picked up "hello" It was his mom , he knew it, tears burst out.He could say nothing , for his entire body was numb, numb with the guilt of abandoning her ,who had raised a fatherless child, numb with the shame of running away from his only responsibility, his mother. She was still there on the other side he could feel it but his lips were sealed and hence the rain spoke for him........