Rain, associated memories,nostalgia

Evening rain makes me write. I don't know if it's a coincidence but now a days I get to hear a lot of stories about how people chose certain careers that made them happy and rich ( obviously, as in what did you think?). Anyway, so today's blog post is not about those people and those stories. Today's blog is about how an ex-colleague and I had a serious conversation one day without intending to have one. It happened in Rajasthan during the month of January. Both my colleague and I, decided to take an evening walk after 7 in the campus. We both were bored and just so you know both of us were of the same age and we had to make use of our excessive energy. So we got out after 7, and we walked and walked. Northern India winter is not like the winter that one experiences in eastern India. Northern India winter can make every corner of your body shiver. That's what makes it very interesting and as we started walking more, talking more, suddenly there was a cold breeze. Normal people would get inside their house but as I said, we badly needed to utilize our energy properly and we continued with our walk.

                       It started drizzling and then it started raining and then it started raining heavily and then very heavily. We took shelter in one of the open verandas of another teacher, a colleague and a very dear friend of mine who was not there in the campus then. We dearly missed her tea. But we decided to wait there till the rain which worsened by then, got over. So we talked. We shared things about class 10, which was our common class. We shared things related to our education and that was when she told me how she never knew that she would get into teaching. Even when she was doing her Master's she was absolutely clueless about her passion. All she wanted to do was earn good money ( ask me and I will tell you even that's a passion). So she got into teaching because that was what most of her friends in college were doing. I was sitting there and wondering that how my story was so completely different from hers and how my passion has always been to teach ( again, college or school, it doesn't matter and I honestly feel that teaching a bunch of teenagers is way more challenging than teaching grown ups. Teaching English language has been quite a journey because I have a Master's in Literature but now I can proudly say that I can teach one anything in Language confidently. I worked on my weaknesses and I am still a work in progress ), and how I had to move mountains to literally be where I was. Yes, my colleague's hometown was Gurgaon so it did not matter to her much but I had to travel all the way from Bengal to MP and then to Alwar ( technically Delhi NCR). I don't know the mechanism behind the working of destiny but it surely teaches you so many things. Life may not always allow us to execute things the way we want it but there is no way we should give up. We should try to make the best from what we have in front of us and continue moving forward. Learning is essential and that happens and can happen every moment if you want it to.

                       So as we shared more of our thoughts, wishes, journey, challenges, we also found so many things in common. The rain did not stop for the next one hour and we got a little worried because the quarters were on the other side of the campus. When the rain slowed down a bit, we ran towards our home. It was around 10.30 pm and I still remember how there were male teachers who were playing badminton in the court inside, late at night just because of the rain. We both bid goodbye, entered our quarters and I remember making dinner for myself that day ( dinner was available in the dining hall but we both chose to make dinner for ourselves ). The energy that we felt we were betraying got us back on track. 

As I write I am also tempted to share something  that gave me happiness as a child. The dining table in our house is a four seater table. It has a traditional touch. The chairs are big wooden chairs and it is designed in such a way that each chair can accommodate a ten year old underneath it. The chairs also have this wooden lining on all four sides such that if you take shelter under one chair, your will feel like you are being protected by it ( atleast that is what I felt as a 5 year old). It was my home. No doll house. No nothing but the space under the chair was my playhouse.  When it rained outside, I got underneath it and felt peace. I miss those days honestly. My worry back then was what if the chair falls short of fitting me in. With time, life happened and that chair was forgotten. Or should I just say that space beneath the chair was forgotten. The chairs are still there and I am sitting on top of one and writing this blog post. 

P.S - My student asked me yesterday about my next post. Chaitali, the evening rain today triggered it. Here you go.I also know what exactly you want to know. I am just waiting for the ideal time to share it on my blog.