Tea in the rains

 

Do you remember

That downpour in monsoon’s end –

Gariahat More -

And you and I

Without umbrellas?

 

Countless refuges,

Yet you decided

To take it all,

And drink not just rain

But a hot cup of milky tea

 

There, on a clammy mid-day

In bedraggled clothes, dripping

We were sipping tea,

And insipid rain dissolving

The dust of our grimy city

 

I noticed

How the cross-road

Felt empty like never before,

Almost like a dream

You never realise you are within

But you were immersed

In the rising steam

From our paper cups

Fighting, resisting

A relentless deluge

 

Even in our closeness,

A thin partition of rain,

A lingering taste of sugar

And the warmth of tea

Cooling every moment

 

And just like that

Tea emptied,

The rains stopped

The city woke up

So did the sun

 

The cacophony returned

Somewhere

In that noise

Our conversation stopped

And the rains never returned

 

Even today,

When I cross Gariahat,

For a second, I stop

I stare at soiled paper cups

Strewn by the roadside

 

And I smile, convinced

Somewhere, in a different world -

It is still raining

A paper cup of tea

Fights a relentless deluge…

 

29^th July, 2026