Events seem to unfold vividly (played out again in our minds) from days bygone, retained in greatest detail, to the time of the day and the dress she was wearing...

There used to be a girl who lived just outside my window. We played and laughed together, fought to bruise each other and rushed out to enjoy the first rains as they came down every year in front of our little dwellings, leaving our pains behind. That was joy of the most joyous kind.

And then there was social existence. Every year our families had some common rituals. Not of the religious kind but the social ones.

For example, after the annual exams comparison of academic performances was an important aspect of community living. Each of our parents tried very hard to ensure that their child's grades were not revealed! But the occasional visitor to each of our houses always slipped some gossip to some other common acquaintance. The look in our mother's faces was enough to gauge how we had fared compared to each other.

NOW YOU MIGHT THINK THAT THE TIME INTERVAL BETWEEN GETTING REPORT CARDS AND THE LEAKS MAY BE A WEEK OR TWO! Light speed gossip defies all laws. Only two days at best...

Anyways, our laughing and playing made way for an unsaid, undeclared but fierce competition. Who scores a better paying job and hence a better spouse? And both of these together would be no good if one didn't move to a western country. So there you go... goals defined, I just faked a laugh every time the girl and I crossed paths. We were competitors with more than aggressive backing of parents and relatives. We also had the backing of neighbors, who split loyalties, depending on whose parents kept them more happy!

Year after year distances grew. The window across the street was a world away.

Rains came down like every year! I had lost track of seasons, years. But one day, sitting  besides my window, I saw outside. The beautiful weather told me it was June. It reminded me of that June, ages ago. We had come out and enjoyed the drops with an almost sacred innocence. We put our hands out first and felt the first drops. We smiled blissfully looking at each other, exchanging an unsaid, 'So nice, isn't it?'

She had landed the dream job, dream spouse and a dream western living. I landed neither the dream job nor the dream spouse and by extension western living seemed too far fetched.

That rainy day, none of us had reacted in our usual ways. No smirk, no giving a thumbs down or a fake thumbs up to the other.

As of this day, I do not know how she looks like. And I bet she doesn't too. The rains continue to fall outside our little windows. But I am unsure how she feels of the rains now; or whether she had ever noticed a drizzle in years! Neither did I, until that one day.