I Got Wet

The meteorological department had predicted rains for today and tomorrow. And sure enough it was raining all day. Around 2PM it was so dark I had to switch on the lights inside the house.

It was barely drizzling in the evening I went out for a walk. About 15 minutes later it started raining heavily and I was enjoying my walk in the rain. The weather was beautiful, cloudy and very pleasant. The temperature was about 25C. There was hardly any traffic where I walked. A funny thing happened then.

A man, standing under the shelter of a tree with a bicycle next to him, called out to me and asked me why I was getting all wet and why I was not wearing a cap or a raincoat. I said I didn't have one and that it was perfectly fine to get wet. Rain is good and that Rain does no harm to anyone. (I remembered what Ramdev had told me many decades ago http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2010/09/old-memories-trams-and-rickshaws.html.) I asked him to also not keep waiting but to go on in the rain. He seemed surprised at my reply. At the same moment I got a call on my phone and I concentrated on my call. As I finished talking a minute later, I found him cycling away in the rain. I smiled.

Another 100m later another man (a security guard in one of the large houses) called out to me and asked to me step inside the house and wait until the rain abated. I told him what I had told the other man earlier. He told me that this was unseasonal rain and I could get sick if I got wet (the other man had said the same thing to me) and asked me to come inside. I shook my head and kept walking. 

What surprised me was that in this city people usually, including me, keep to themselves. And today within a span of 5 minutes I had met two men both of whom seemed concerned towards the well being of a stranger. Their warmth and the Rain made my day.