Rain is me <3 - Dreamer _ (free ereaders .TXT) 📗

slept soon. I stood up & walked towards my cupboard.

My cupboard is like my memory-storage box. It has preserved every memory of my college, friends & school.

I opened it & took out my photo album.

 

 

 

 

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My favorite photograph on the front page contained me, Zoufishan, Fadila & Haya.

Even though I had a large group of more than fifteen girls, still my main lovely group comprised Zoufishan, Fadila & Haya only.

We all were best friends of each other.

I remember that we clicked this beautiful photograph in a meadow of Mawlynnong village.

Mawlynnong village in Meghalaya was our favorite hang-out place.

I clearly remember our last time’s trip to that village. It has been almost four years since that trip till today, yet everything is so fresh in my mind.

When we for the first time heard that the Mawlynnong village in Meghalaya has been accorded as the ‘The cleanest village in Asia’, we knew we had to plan a trip to see it.

We finally planned a week’s trip to it.

It was located in the East Khasi Hills of Meghalaya.

The village was at a distance of around 90 kilometers from Shillong & the road leading up to it had many panoramic & breathtaking scenes.

As we walked around the narrow zigzag paths of the village, we were astounded by the very clean & well maintained black roads & beautiful bamboo stilt houses. There were stylish bamboo dustbins everywhere.

A charming river flowed all across the village.
The village was quite pretty, especially in the monsoons, when there was lush greenery all around with waterfalls paving the way to small streams & abundance of flowering orchids dangling from the trees & hedges.

It was indeed a great place for any pluviophile, like me, because the village received rainfall very frequently; all throughout the year.

In the first trip to the village only, we had discovered a little place, a meadow, which was nourished with plenty of opulent vegetation & was near a lovely brook.

The last trip that we had to that meadow was mesmerizing.

The memories of our last trip to the meadow are vivid with peaceful & relaxing thoughts, motivated by the beauty, scents & sounds of the meadow.

I, Zoufishan, Fadila & Haya planned our last visit to it on a rainy day.

The atmosphere of the Mawlynnong village was always filled with cool fog & mist.

The Mawlynnong Rest House was the only place to stay at the village.

The two rest cottages in the village were basic bamboo houses built on top of stilts that almost jut out into the adjacent forests. Staying in them was an experience in itself.

One cottage was for two people & a bigger cottage was for four people.

We took the bigger one on rent.

The season was of fall, but still it was raining heavily.

“1, 2, 3… & I’m running out!” I shrilled, laughing.

“Try not to!” Zoufishan pulled me back & closed the cottage’s door.

“Hila, can’t you wait till it stops raining?” Haya said, nibbling hot noodles.

“Oh! No! I want to get out in the rain! C’mon all, it will be fun!” I cried.
“Shut up, Hila!” Fadila said, wrapping herself in a shawl.

“You shut up!” I giggled & ran out.

And in a moment, I was completely drenched. The lilt sound of rain tickled in my ears.

I still remember that feel of cool rain on my face.

“Zoufishan, Come out please! It’s splendid here! Leave that wee hovel!” I shrilled.

“We won’t!” Haya answered back.

“Well, you all are wasting your good time! Hey, I’m going to the meadow!” I giggled.

I ran down to the meadow. The freshness of the village, the little waterfalls, the hills & the rainfall, all were brilliant.

The whole scene was quintessentially awesome.

I sat idly under an enormous ebony tree. Whirlwinds whisked across the rolling hills of the meadow.

I ran my hand into the flowing, cool water of the babbling brook. The sky above my head looked murky & blue-gray.

I just sat there, watching every big & tiny movement of the beautiful nature. I got uncountable amount peace & happiness there.

Only when it had stopped raining, I was able to follow the path to my cottage again.

I was fully wet & my soft-clothed dress had gone translucent.

“So, you’re back, hanky-panky?” Haya said & she looked in a bad mood.

“Nice try, Haya… But, this name suits you more than me!” I grinned, wiping myself with a towel.

“Stop it, you both… Hila, we’ve cooked some murphies, would you like to eat them?” Fadila asked.

“Murphies?” I asked in confusion.

“Potatoes!” Zoufishan answered.

“Oh! Sure…” I exclaimed.

I sat down with a bowl of boiled potatoes tossed with spices & tomato sauce.

“Is it our dinner?” I asked, staring at my bowl.

“Any doubts? That’s all for you today…” Haya said, grinning.

She was always irritated with me, due to some or the other thing. She always tried to find even a little way to either tease me or fight with me.

But she was still one of my best friends, anyways.

“Haya, will you stop talking to me so badly?” I said, slowly.

I felt a twitch of annoyance due to her.

“Well, no…” She said again.

“Okay, this marks the beginning of our long-lasting fight… Zoufishan & Fadila, don’t you forget that this time I didn’t start the fight… Haya, you’re gone now…” I said, angrily.

Haya always went up from my saturation point.

“Let’s see who goes where & when!” Haya sniffed.

“Oho! Please Haya & Hila don’t mess the trip… We’ve come here to enjoy & not to fight… We know that you both have caliber to fight more than anyone else in the world, even on a stupid, petite reason. But, please stop it, now. We all are best friends. Aren’t we?” Zoufishan said, calmly.

This was Zoufishan’s best quality; she used to handle every serious & easy situation, so calmly & gently.

Haya & I stared each other for a moment.

“Yeah… We’re best friends…!” Haya said & hugged me.

Zoufishan & Fadila pounced on us & even though it was difficult for 4 people to hug each other together, we did it as perfectly as we always did.

“Oh! Love you all!” Fadila moaned.

We locked the cottage & went to sleep.

“Hey, Hila, why do you like rain so much?” Fadila questioned, as we lay on the carpeted floor to sleep.

“Well, I would have answered you if there was one reason for why I love rains… There are infinite numbers of reasons for this…” I said, gently.

“But, I don’t like the monsoons at all. They’re dirty & make slush everywhere… I like neat & tidy summers…” Fadila responded.

“Well, that’s your choice, sweetie… I don’t mind! Summers are good as well!” I said, smiling.

She nodded.

That beautiful night, I wasn’t able to sleep. Not because I was tensed or anything else like that, but because I felt extremely contented having so awesome & hearty, dear friends. Not everyone is enough lucky to get friends like that, but I was surely fortunate in this thing.

Next morning, when we woke up, actually when Fadila, Haya & Zoufishan woke up, (For I wasn’t able to sleep for the whole night), it felt really hot & humid.

We all took a hasty bath as there was only one quaint bathroom in the entire cottage & we all were in a hurry to go outside & check out the scenic view of the early morning in the Mawlynnong village.

We ran out to the meadow & sat quietly under the same large ebony tree.

People say that even a gutter can be a splendid place if one is with his friends.

And I had both the company of my beloved friends & the place too was extremely beautiful.

The morning that day looked just like a refreshing summer morning & Fadila was happiest amongst all of us.

The orange-hued sky was fascinating.

The distant hills reflected the faint alpine-glow of the first beam of light from the Sun.

The shade under the tree where we sat was dark, still & damp.

We sat admiring the lovely sight of how the gray sky of night breaks slowly to open the way for the morning.

A few birds began chirping in the anticipation.

The color of fresh morning began to work its way down the hillside, ridge by ridge, igniting boulders of granite with a fiery curtain of daylight.

It dropped & tumbled like golden honey flowing down a long stack of hot pancakes.

We were at the end of the meadow.

I began sketching the scene wildly on a notebook brought by me.

And like a cold camper stepping into a pleasantly hot shower; the warmth stroked my back & my shoulders.

I dragged my feet through the deep green, dewy blades of grass that constantly scratched and grabbed at me.

The glaring Sun became harder & harder onto my smooth, silky skin, filling my body with incredible warmth.

The warmth felt like velvety-smooth, melted milk chocolate dripping through my pounding veins.

I allowed the pen & notebook in my rose-scented hands to drop into the sun-filled meadow & grabbed one of the creamy petals of the rose that bloomed in front of the brook. It looked as soft as a newborn baby’s bum & it quickly disintegrated beneath my distinct fingerprints.

I inhaled deeply.

I felt that I sat in some magical part of the Earth.

That entire sunny meadow gave me an incredible feeling of euphoria.

“Hila, c’mon… The glow has subsided… We should go back now!” Zoufishan gave a pat on my shoulders, after sometime.

“Yeah…But, can’t we stay here for some more time?” I said.

“Oh! Hila, okay…” Zoufishan said.

After this, we clicked millions of photographs of us & of the place.

Photographs are treasures, treasures that preserve one’s memories.

We left & took loads of souvenirs of the place & did everything which one can do only with his friends. We shared many untold incidents with each other.

Like this, we didn’t come to know when it was night.

This was actually meant to be the last day of our last trip to the meadow.

“Hila, now don’t you dare to say that you’re going to do a night-stay here…” Haya said.

“No…” I laughed.

We began moving to our cottage. Night of the meadow was more beautiful than the morning.

And then something strange happened.

When we were moving out of the meadow, a very fair, cute & small boy suddenly came running in front of us.

On observing him closely, I saw that he wore a wee, tattered shirt & ragged pants & his thin body was stained with dust.

He was roughly of between 5-6 years old.

He was really fair & had small, gentle hair.

The moon’s delicate light shimmered on his innocent face as he stood staring us, quietly.

No one did anything for a minute & then he ran inside the meadow.

“Wait…!” I shouted & we all ran behind him.

He ran & reached near the brook of the meadow.

“Wait, dear! What are you doing here?” I asked gaspingly as he finally stopped.

He stared at me awkwardly for a moment & then ignoring us, he took out a crumpled ball of paper from his pocket.

“Hey…!” I moved near him.

And then all I remember is that he threw that ball of paper in his hands into the brook & ran very far away.

Fadila tried to catch him, but he was too fast.

Quickly, I lifted that paper ball from the brook.

It was already very wet & what was written or drawn inside it had smudged away.

“Shit!” I exclaimed.

Fadila took the paper in her hands.

“Hey, Hila! There’s something fuzzy written on this paper & I can read it!” Fadila said, slowly.

“Really, what’s written on it? Read out!” I said.

“Y…o…u- You, people, are, no one to, take, our, place, leave, or, something, wrong, will, happen…” Fadila read out, very slowly as she wasn’t able to read the fuzzy writings on the paper properly.

“What? I can’t understand anything…!” I exclaimed.

“Hila, perhaps this meadow is someone else’s hangout place, perhaps of some native of this village, & he is not happy to see us at their place…!” Zoufishan said after a few seconds.

“It seems like what you are saying is correct, Zoof!” Haya remarked.

“Yeah, okay… Haya, give me my notebook please!” I said.

“Here it is.” Haya gave me the notebook.

“I’m writing a note to the