A day of monsoon

As the day passed the dusk of monsoon surrounded a slum in a region of bihar.

In this small slum there was a four square house stands by the self cemented brick , giving it a barren look without any paint and flat tin sheets were spreading over the roof. There lived a family of four the head of the household Mr. Kamal singh, his wife Mrs laxmi, their children an 11year old boy named susheel and an 8 year old girl named rani.

The pair of brother and sister were standing at the entrance fixing a dream catcher on the upper iron boundary of the door. Before this, it was lying on one side of a road . Susheel picked it up while wandering around the street with their toys in their selling cart with his father.

They had heard about it that it protect nightmares and bad dreams and it also looked fancy to them ,so they hung it at the entrance door. It was floating in mid air due to wind's blow. A smile appeared on susheel's face as, a hope can easily be seen through his sister's smile and her eyes was glowing with dreams filled in them .They both named it a gola (circle) . Though he lost the luster of a child's eyes but he still find it in his sister and want to protect her from the fate ahead.

The room was filled with darkness with just a unlit bulb hung over the ceiling by a naked wire at the centre of the Hall. Their mother was standing in the kitchen making meals for today's lunch. At one of the dark corner of the Hall there were toys most of them are rag dolls. With their wide eyes they were looking at the only source of light at the entrance .the light was hurdled by a silhouette standing at door as kamal singh entered , putting her veil on her head laxmi rushed towards the door holding a lota .she washed his hands and feet outside the door while looking through her veil. Mr. Kamal put his sweaty shirt on a hanger while his wife were spreading mat on the floor and setting the meal on it. The roties were burnt due to the lack of power in the room and daal is looked usual than pale in its color.

the wind changed it's flow and started pushing the roof which made the roof 's sheets rattle throughout their meal.

Mr. Kamal stepped forward and climbed on the ladder placing bricks individually on the corner and at the interface of the sheets. Standing beneath, susheel were holding the ladder .the voice of laughter and puddling of water made by the kids playing outside echoes in his mind. One of the kid called him but got disrupted by his father voice . He called out to pass him a brick. He only took a glance on children but the norms of being an elder boy and a big brother strangled his childish mind and he continued what he was doing .

As drops of rains started dripping they rushed for their cart wearing tarpaulin on their head, tied the cart with chain to the nearest pole and pickup the remaining toys and bring them inside. As the time passed the wind started growling and the darkness reached it's prominence.The wind were pushing the rooftop and the raindrops were beating on the roof. dream catcher was dancing away from storm and it's ties started loosening gradually. Through the dark room a candle was lit in the centre where susheel and his father were sitting and on one side of the wall his school bag lying barren and untouched with only small ray were shedding on its loneliness.

They were working on sewing the raged dolls some of which might get slightly damaged with abrupt force or could be due to the overtime of them at the corner or by the notorious nature of rani but she generally don't tell anyone, she just used to stand at the corner generally trying to look away from her work as she had been doing now.

While holding the needle kamal's eyes narrowed several time while looking through the dim light of the candle . His eyesight problem was a well known facts to everyone but he still continued his work.

Being a puppet his wife could only worry about him .

**

Laxmi was making mehdi paste for hartalika teej with her daughter who had just shifted from the corner to help her mother. While making the mehdi the smile on rani face reflected her innocence who was not aware of the reality, the growling of wind soothes her and the beating of raindrops were a melody that was dissolving in her ears. Looking to her, laxmi streched her lips with a monotone dampness in her eyes.

As storm increases, rain drops were smashing every house, the winds became more aggressive trying to take any objects that comes in way with themself but some loosen ends still tried it's best to remain static to its full strength as it's base allowed it to and Some weak ends got lost in the whirl as the dream catcher were laid low on the ground all wetted and licking the sand on the floor .

Finally, the roof's ends gave up allowing some drops to invade the house touching the floor and were dripping on some motionless rag dolls wetting their skin and a bowl of mehdi paste comes in contact with the drop of moisture. Mr. Kamal tried to stand on his foot, a crack sound can be heard from an old joint. Slowly but steadily he tries to approach them holding onto the paste and leaving his dolls alone while his wife brings plates and tarpaulin. On one hand she covered the bowl with plate and other hand cover the tarpaulin over the dolls.

As the next sun came due to heavy raining damage has been done the paste had already been contaminated loosed it's texture and color and the rainwater was seaping under the tarpaulin reaching the cotton of the the which was already been soaked enough damaging it. Even though laxmi was keeping a watch through ot the night and Mr. Kamal had sealed some leakage point that night. Disappointed Mr. Kamal stepped outside taking some wet dolls with him and crushing the gola by his foot on his way.

Even though it looks okay outside,but every ends had loosen itself to some extent in the storm . Every end of our left a story within us.