Storm
This is no life-affirming, earth-quenching rain. This is no stirring breeze bringing with it the scent of hope and madhumalati. This is no day to breathe deep of the petrichor, to turn faces towards the wet. This is rage, and anger, and malice afore thought. This is grey and black and blurred, sulphur and stench.
This is wind snapping off huge branches and tumbling down trees, because it can: it reminds me of a pyromaniac stacking matchsticks, ready to light a conflagration if the urge overwhelms. This is wind that hoots and cackles at human frailty and foolishness. In the mood for destruction, are you? Here, try this for size, it says. Let Nature show you how it’s done. Did you tear down your pitiful walls? This wind wants to tear down the world today. Who will stop it? Not the call from the minaret nor the sound of bells from a temple, not even if they call with one voice.
This is rain that slaps the world’s face and drops birds dead. The huge kite that perches in the coconut tree has had a fright – the storm has brought down the very large frond it called its home. This rain is pitiless, it is intent on teaching a much-needed, seldom-heeded lesson. Celebrating a victory? Do you believe that this rain is a blessing, auspicious and propitious? Well, not today. Today, it is a wall that rises from the sea and crashes down from the sky. It soaks the world and drowns everything in its way. This is rain that negates human achievement and forces each living thing to bend before it. This is rain that shatters the illusion of belief in a higher being – try praying for the sheets of water to show mercy and cease.
This is the sea and the sky of our nightmares. There is no light on the horizon. The air and water blend into one seamless maelstrom – is today really the day for anointing your gods, whichever name you call them by? The sea churns, the wind showers us with hidden treasure – the garbage churning out of the depths will have to do, the flowers are needed elsewhere. To cover the pyres and graves of the believers.
Do you believe in omens? Will everyone you love be home safe and dry tonight? Will your prayers be answered? Nature is deaf today. It has no patience left with pettinesses and prejudices.
The bells you ring, however fervently, may never be heard over the madness of this storm. The flowers may be tossed from your hands, never reaching the intended, losing their fragrance, their form itself, to this ceaseless wind. Your offerings may merge with the tears and rain, colouring your tomorrows with artificial gaiety. The call to prayer, however devout, however magnified, may still be snatched away, lost to this ultimate, deafening and defeating force. The steeple, the dome, the spires reaching for the sky may fail to shelter us from the storm. No, it seems Nature is done with this mindless celebration, this human obsession with higher beings and the wilful ignorance of life itself. The lesson Nature reaffirms today is one of respect. For the life force it gives to each one of us, the same life it can flick away without thought or reason.
I watch my beloved trees and birds respond to the fury. They know better than to show any hubris – they bend and cleave to the storm, understanding and acknowledging that there is no force greater than this. Their instinct is to give way, never to resist. This knowledge might save them. Or not.
What will it take to save us from the storm? Which brave new world awaits the believers? When this planet is done with humanity, will the gods lead us to another world, a world without this force of Nature, impervious yet impartial? Paradise awaits all those who trust in their gods – but for now, all of us, believers and others, just have to ride out this storm.
It has been an unsettling day. The storm that rages around us and the storm that rages within our hearts. May the dark night pass peacefully for us all.