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It’s raining outside.
A long time ago (that is to say, about two years ago) I had written Top 10 Ideas for Blogging, (which, frankly speaking, were nothing but nonsense). One of the “ideas” present there is to rewrite those essays that you used to write in school, such as ‘A Rainy Day’ or ‘How to Polish a Pair of Shoes’. As you can guess, I have decided to act upon that idea and the first line of this post is so creatively telling you that it’s raining outside. But, since the title of this post also includes the words ‘Sunday Market’, so it is actually going to be a mixture of ‘A Rainy Day’ and ‘A Visit to the Sunday Market’. (Again, as you can guess, latter is a version of that yet another classic essay titled ‘A Visit to a Museum/Hill Station/Village/Funfair/any other goddamn place that your teacher thought you should have visited’.)
Normally, ‘A Rainy Day’ is something like describing the scorching heat of summer first, and then the arrival of clouds with winds starting to blow and the rain pouring down for mankind, after which everybody would first prostrate before God in thanks of the much needed relief, and then go out and play kabaddi in the rain water. (Yes, I actually read this kabaddi playing sentence in one of those essay-writing books.) On the other hand, I remember just a single instance of a rainy day occurring in winter, and that too was not a full essay, but just a paragraph. It might be that rainy days in winter don’t have much to be written about, which I am suspecting really is the case, since I myself am blending A Visit to the Sunday Market with A Rainy Day. On the contrary, it might be that all of us, who have tried to write about rainy days, lack the creativity to describe the real feel of experiencing them in winter (which, I also strongly suspect, is the case).
Anyway, before I start suspecting my sanity too, I think I must move on.
So, it’s raining outside. Almost four hours ago, I was driving our car in this rain, with Abbu ji sitting in the passenger seat, and we were on our way to the Sunday Market. The Sunday Market, as expected, was not as crowded as it usually turns out to be — no stalls for clothes, cutlery, bakery items, or chicken. But normally, we only visit the Sunday Market for vegetables and fruits, and they were there, albeit fewer than usual. The rain was light, but continuous, resulting in all sorts of umbrellas held by their owners to protect them. Abbu ji had an umbrella too, and I had put on the hood of my sweatshirt.
I have never really given any thought to the colour of umbrellas until today. Almost all umbrellas have the same shape, with the difference lying in the way they can be collapsed (and there, again, are not much differences). So, then that I saw so many of them, I started to think about it. Black seems to be the most general colour. Then comes blue (Abbu ji had a dark blue one). Then the ones with rainbow-ish patterns. And then the floral ones. And yes, the checkered ones too. For me, more amusing than their colours was the fact that whether the umbrellas “suited” their owners. For example, there was this brawny man who was holding a little umbrella with a floral pattern. Amusing. Another lady’s rather large black umbrella was proving to be quite difficult to handle for her, specially when the wind blew ferociously. A cheerful middle aged man who stood beside us in front of one of the many fruit stalls, had an umbrella whose frame was so flexible that the wind inverted it, making it resemble a large bowl balanced on a stick. The thought made me chuckle, since balancing a bowl on a stick in such a windy condition would be quite a feat.
The stall owners were having their troubles with the wind too. Some had suspended a piece of plastic sheet to protect their goodies, and those sheets were making their feeble attempts to face the roaring wind, ultimately giving in, and then fluttering with a loud noise, probably protesting why their one corner was still attached to the bamboo used for suspending them. And, obviously, their protest wasn’t turning out to be very good for other people (like me, for instance) who, despite being bathed in the rain, were forced to face another splatter of rain water accumulated by those plastic sheets.
Driving around in the rain is something very eventful too, specially if other drivers suddenly realize that they are getting late and then start splashing water on other cars’ windscreens. And imagine the joy of such a thing if the defogger of your car is defunct as well. Definitely makes your day.
And now that I am writing these lines, it has suddenly dawned on me that the above nonsense is anything but an essay. Well, it might be an essay, but the one which doesn’t talk much about its title. And anyway, all my essays in school used to talk about their titles, so maybe this is a good change. Furthermore, I am getting sleepy, so maybe I should head towards my bed…
Nothing is more peaceful than a nap on a rainy day after a visit to the Sunday Market, eh?
16 comments
Sage
Feb 12, 2007 at 11:30 am
simply nice
…
stray angel
Feb 13, 2007 at 11:21 pm
cute essay-ish thing
the thing i like abt ur blog is tht it’s so very different. thought i’d tell u. ciao!!
xill-e-ilahi
Feb 14, 2007 at 12:30 am
yes there is actually. a nap on a rainy day before a visit to the sunday market.
H
Feb 16, 2007 at 12:09 am
I got myself a rainbow colored umbrella during an unexpected trip to the walled city of Lahore! Yay!!
I consider myself so much superior to the owners of the black colored ones now! =)
The rain, the one you’re particularly talking about, makes me sick at the thought of it. Yani keh, hadd hoti hai. Rain’s good for a day or maybe two, but more than that and it just gets annoying.
No One
Feb 16, 2007 at 6:51 am
“specially if other drivers suddenly realize that they are getting late and then start splashing water on other cars’ windscreens. And imagine the joy of such a thing if the defogger of your car is defunct as well. Definitely makes your day.”—> ha ha…nice description…laters.
Aysh
Feb 21, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Asak. LOL! You must really be bored Saadat… or really into the rainy day stuff… ofcourse, it is possible that you really, really very much were aching to write something!
Nice essay btw, and reading about umbrellas…as a matter of fact there are the square ones too. I think they are the ‘in’ thing these days… or may be it is just in India, cause I recieved one as a gift. It is square and black with polka dots. Imagine that and yes, imagine why ever would a Cosmetic Store lady give that as a gift!?!
Thank You for updating :p
Saadat
Feb 27, 2007 at 8:45 am
Sage: Thanks!
Stray Angel: Hehe, thanks for telling!
Xill-e-Ilahi: Oh, right. It sure is.
H: You are giving people like me, who don’t even own an umbrella, an inferiority complex. But yes, waqai hadd hoti hai! Thank God we don’t have a climate like Britain’s.
No One: Glad you liked it!
Gul: Haha, mehnat karna tou mein kab ka chorr chuka hon!
UD: Aww, get that umbrella back ASAP! And the itwaar bazaar we go to doesn’t have any novels’ spot — it’s a tiny little bazaar, you see. And thanks for complimenting me on my sense of observation, though recently it has been betraying me a lot!
Aysh: Finally! The great Mrs. Aysh was able to comment successfully! And yes, I was aching to write something (in order to fulfill the desperate need of this blog for an update, which, by the way, it has right now too!) The square umbrellas sound fun, and maybe the cosmetic lady considered them to be a fantastic way to enhance one’s image?
Gul
Feb 19, 2007 at 7:41 am
Wow! kafi mehnat lagi na yeh post likhnay main. nai?!
LOL!
I guess, rain cant change things all over Pakistan, m saying this bcoz i also have witnessed Sunday bazaars so many times in rain and they go xactly u told. Btw! Thanks for stopping by, these days m in wild search of good old pals i used to addicted to read them.
UD
Feb 19, 2007 at 9:31 pm
a rainy day n i wud never go to sunday bazaar! the defence one wud be so goddamn muddy n icky stick yikes!! n my fav novels spot wud have gotten all sokaed n the books all swollen with water into something unreadable
that wud make me sad!
i had a white umbrella with colored polka dots n i loved it! left it in CA when i came back n ur post making me mishhhhhhhhh it..
okays, compared to my scenario, ur eassy sounds interesting hehehe
wese na, u have a very good sense of observation
Aysh
Feb 21, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Yay!! I can comment!!
Aysh
Mar 3, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Yeah… funny lady she was, the sales girl. She actually made me buy stuff I didn’t wear!
Replying from my blog, The links work fine. I rechecked them and they work. You’ll need to check your settings, I guess. Bahrain was last weekend. This weekend was Jubail!
Areeb
Mar 4, 2007 at 11:48 am
This is how the trends in Blogging have changed !
People liked those 10 Things at that time
Saadat
Mar 7, 2007 at 7:33 am
Aysh: Haha, looks like the lady was good at doing her job! I’ll try the links again, and how was Jubail?!
Areeb: Dude! Don’t tell me you took those ideas seriously! They were such a bad attempt at humour
No One
Mar 13, 2007 at 8:19 pm
I have moved!
Aks
Jul 5, 2007 at 7:12 pm
It is just awsome!!!! Seriously enjoyable!!!
k.snigdha
Aug 27, 2008 at 6:07 pm
simply superb , and too awsome