The day the rain came

The rain came, beating relentlessly on the window panes, and I sighed a sigh of relief as it washed away those dreadful pollens that had been making my life quite miserable recently.

But it was the kind of rain, the likes of which we have never seen here before. It was the kind of rain that reminded me of home; of hot banana fritters and steaming hot tea, on Tok’s verandah.

Or freshly fried keropok and kacang goreng cap orang tua while watching repeats of P Ramlee movies or Kabhi Kabhi.

The kind of rain that brings a certain kind of freshness in the air.

The rain came and kept coming. The road running across our little town was like a river. But in other parts of England, the scenery was as gloomy as the weather report. Hundreds and thousands of people were evacuated, properties ruined and life disrupted.

Yesterday, atok sent an email telling us that the water level at the nearby Thames was dangerously high and they had been told to be ready for the floods. His family had moved everything upstairs.

With the rain gone in our neck of the woods, I ventured out for breakfast of nasi lemak and roti canai with a newfound bloggerfriend who came with a jar of miracle. A much needed break for me for I needed to see the outside world after days of being glued to the PC and burying myself in paperwork. From breakfast, I adjourned for lunch of Nasi Ayam at Holiday Villa with husband and some other friends. We needed this, we told each other. We needed this break, away from PC and exam papers and talked about everything from Big Brother to Eastenders and Akademi Fantasia and other reality TV trash that we shamefacedly admitted we watch in the name of research.

It was also the kind of day we threw caution and strict dieting regime to the wind. As a friend was eating for two, we all decided to eat for her and with her. Our sympathy cravings were extremely sympathetic bordering on pathetic. She mentioned something and we ate. She pointed to something and we ate. And when she mentioned bubur kacang, we obediently trooped back to Malaysia Hall Canteen two streets away where we continued our discussion on anything and everything trivial over tea with banana fritters , pasembur and of course bubur kacang.

Customers came and went, waiters came and went to replenish our glasses with teh tarik and our plates with pisang goreng and we still sat there talking about nothing in particular. It was that kind of a day.

With the drizzle gone making way for a clearer blue sky, we decided that with the nasi ayam, pisang goreng and teh tarik settling quite nicely in our tummy, we could do with a walk in the park.

As we entered the park, the freshness of the grass after the rain was unmistakeable. It almost brought tears to my eyes.

The last visit to Kensington Gardens was to see Taufiq doing his silat and that was in spring. Summer and the rain had brought the leaves, green and fresh on the trees in the park. It was a nice walk – we talked about this and that, more of this than that, if you know what I mean.

And then it was in the park, during that walk, we witnessed a beautiful miracle.

Visitors to the park walking towards the lake to feed the ducks were suddenly driven back. We stopped in our tracks and wondered what they were running away from.

And then we saw it.

Not far from the fleeing crowd, was the rain. We stood rooted staring at this miracle, even with the knowledge that the rain would get to us in seconds. And we laughed like children playing in the rain before our mothers called us in. Yes, it was that kind of a day and sharing umbrellas, handlinking behind us, we walked back to Holiday Villa for its scrumptious buffet of tom yam, nasi goreng kampong, mee goreng mamak and mussles and rendang. And the one eating for two merely watched as we ate for her sympathetically.

Yes, it was that kind of a day when the rain came.