He talks of rain and tea and smells of life

Most of the people I meet are tea-people. With that, I mean people who’d probably drive miles to have one. But when they would ask me with that cheerful smile spread all over their faces with “Tea?”, how am I supposed to deny it!

“It’s raining. Do you really wanna go out?” He looked at me, already standing in the rain.
It had just started drizzling, or we thought it would continue alike. The movie we stayed up all night watching turned up to be a debacle on my peace. (Netflix, you need to come up with a genre called “Bad Trip”.) I stood there waiting for him to appear out of the parking lot. For no reason and many, I like this. Gazing at him. He amuses me. He, indeed, does. I was probably not crushing on him; I’m sure that I was still trying to understand the reasons.
But as we started riding down the streets to spot stalls of cigarettes, I realized how troubling it could’ve been for him to ride. He loves rain. Adventure, he called it to be. Rain and tea are the best things he knows. What could one else want except a warm cup of tea in the rain, he questioned. I like the sound of glitters in his words. There’s life in them that makes me peep into the life I have lost in me. Lately, I’ve submerged myself into a silhouette, focusing on work, and striving to be ‘productive’; I do all that I can do to keep myself on track. The solitude was where I had created a home. Seeing him is perhaps like.. watching butterflies? The colours in them and around him drew contentment.

Ahmedabad, after hours of rain, blends into an insane purity. The green leaves rustled with the breeze and the roads swiftly clean making enough room for airdrops scattered to shine. With no idea how long we had been riding around, we discovered pathways. How little I know the routes and how it fascinates him to explore them all. How it fascinates me to explore him.

“I know at least 7 routes to my office.” Said the guy I barely knew 7 things about.

And it started raining. Heavier. There were we hunting shade to pause under at what? 5 am?

And it was then that he roughly off his bike yet, when he looked at me and asked, “Tea?”. My lips got twitched. I’ve had cups of tea that night with them already. Most tasted like raw herbs mixed with water. But recalling how he loved this, I blinked with a smile. Can’t imagine us looking for coffee in that weather and time.

To my amazement, as the taste touched my buds, I couldn’t help saying, “This is so much better!”
The tea-lover smiled at the coffee addict as if stating that tea is the ultimate better.
We sipped from our cups in silence.

And watched the rain.

We talked through the way around, again, trying to know each other more. I liked how he would inlay things he thought were relevant for me to know. It’s funny how we humans function. We meet strangers; wanting them to know us, we sum up ages of incidents that they were not a part of to lighten that one moment for which they’re around.

“I really don’t know how to put up conversations with a girl. Do keep speaking or you’ll get bored with me.” He uttered innocently.

We both are introverts, noted. Momentarily.

Never realizing how time flew and how drenched we were, we headed back home, I knew then that ride to satisfy our cigarette cravings had changed a lot in between. Strangers had turned into friends. We were different and yet curved into similarities. He talks of rain and tea. I talk of work and coffee. But still, sometimes, I have recalled our conversations and smiled to myself. And then, I knew the reason why he gladdens me so much. He holds the moments I’ve begun to smile with myself. He smells of life.