The day had begun on the usual note of being warm and gummy. The sky wasn't overcast but there were enough tell tale signs to indicate that it was gonna rain later in the evening.
A rooster in our neighbour's house made his presence felt with his energetic calls in the morning. Soon after, one heard it shrieking of pain - he was slowly being bled to death to turn up as an exquisite dish on the dining table, later in the day!
And quite a while later, Lekha's beautician friend had come to chop off her hair and give her a good head bath. She was having her head washed for the first time since 20 May, before the surgery. The relief was visible on her face because lack of bath can upset one's peace in this warm weather, the enhanced use of soaps, deodorants and perfumes post sponging, notwithstanding!
Around 8 PM, the rains had begun. I'd just finished my work out on the treadmill and we're getting ready for our fruit time. The rain picked up in intensity and before long it was heavy, submerging many parts of the temple town. My friend, Narayanan, who stays closer to the temple and who was within the outer precincts of the temple at that time had rung me up and in an excited tone said, "Sir, the lightning has struck the northern wall of the sanctum sanctorum and a part of it has fallen off!" He sounded very, very sad too and it was pretty clear that he'd taken it personal. Well, this is not an uncommon phenomenon out here, anything that does not go well for Guruvayoorappan affects the people!
My reaction was equally irrational when I exclaimed, "What, even God is not spared from the nature's fury?" and advised him to get back to his house earliest as there would be enough people to take necessary action to take care of the damages to the temple.
But news had spread by word of mouth and there were numerous calls subsequently, asking me for the details. A few of them seemed to be genuinely disappointed that I was not there at the scene of the damage! And I, for once, did not have a plausible explanation for that!!
Tailpiece.
I've seen nature's fury earlier too. Long time back, on one of my vacations from school, I'd seen a sheet of lightning drop on to the earth when it had struck a huge and old banyan tree at the market ground, adjacent to my house. It was spectacular but dangerously close for comfort and we're all huddled in our sitting room deep in conversation........The tree's remnants, the next day, was a sorry sight - burnt and reduced to an insignificant, dwarfed stump shorn off all its leaves and most of the branches!
A rooster in our neighbour's house made his presence felt with his energetic calls in the morning. Soon after, one heard it shrieking of pain - he was slowly being bled to death to turn up as an exquisite dish on the dining table, later in the day!
And quite a while later, Lekha's beautician friend had come to chop off her hair and give her a good head bath. She was having her head washed for the first time since 20 May, before the surgery. The relief was visible on her face because lack of bath can upset one's peace in this warm weather, the enhanced use of soaps, deodorants and perfumes post sponging, notwithstanding!
Around 8 PM, the rains had begun. I'd just finished my work out on the treadmill and we're getting ready for our fruit time. The rain picked up in intensity and before long it was heavy, submerging many parts of the temple town. My friend, Narayanan, who stays closer to the temple and who was within the outer precincts of the temple at that time had rung me up and in an excited tone said, "Sir, the lightning has struck the northern wall of the sanctum sanctorum and a part of it has fallen off!" He sounded very, very sad too and it was pretty clear that he'd taken it personal. Well, this is not an uncommon phenomenon out here, anything that does not go well for Guruvayoorappan affects the people!
My reaction was equally irrational when I exclaimed, "What, even God is not spared from the nature's fury?" and advised him to get back to his house earliest as there would be enough people to take necessary action to take care of the damages to the temple.
But news had spread by word of mouth and there were numerous calls subsequently, asking me for the details. A few of them seemed to be genuinely disappointed that I was not there at the scene of the damage! And I, for once, did not have a plausible explanation for that!!
Tailpiece.
I've seen nature's fury earlier too. Long time back, on one of my vacations from school, I'd seen a sheet of lightning drop on to the earth when it had struck a huge and old banyan tree at the market ground, adjacent to my house. It was spectacular but dangerously close for comfort and we're all huddled in our sitting room deep in conversation........The tree's remnants, the next day, was a sorry sight - burnt and reduced to an insignificant, dwarfed stump shorn off all its leaves and most of the branches!
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