Jumping from his school van, Arun the innocent boy had his eyes set on the clouded sky. With some thoughts in his mind, he slowly and steadily walked through the newly tarred road to his house. Opening the gate, he saw his elder sister Lakshmi awaiting his arrival.
Few minutes later, Arun was out of his house picking stones and trying to do some stuffs, which Arun only knew. Seeing him playing outside his Grandmother who stays next door asked him to get inside the house. Arun had no intention of getting inside, as there was nothing much of interest for him to do. Inside the house, TV will be running with his sister’s favourite shows, which were always boring for him. As he continued his little game, the clouds kept gathering more and more just like at the wedding that happened near his house a few days back. As more clouds kept pilling up, the sky and the surroundings got darker. This made Arun’s face cloudy as the thought of his Mother who is yet to arrive from Office filled his mind.
Slowly the dark clouds started to pour down with tiny rain droplets. Arun ,who was standing outside was again asked to get inside by his Grandmother. Arun moved inside, with a cloudy face and stood at the verandah hoping it doesn’t rain until his Mother is back. Waiting and waiting, moving in and out through the front door, Arun’s eyes kept scanning each person who came inside the sideroad near the Mosque.
Arun, lived with his Mother and sister in that house. Their father was in Bombay at that time. So every evening Arun used to wait impatiently for his Mother’s arrival and then follow her tail till she strictly instructs him to study. It was quarter past six, and a women, walked inside through the gate with an Umbrella. Seeing his mother, every atoms in Arun from toe to head started to rejoice in happiness. The poor Mother looked tired after her long hectic day of work and travel. But the sight of her son gave her a fleeting look of happiness. As she entered inside Laksmi inspite of being too engrossed in TV, started following her to the kitchen. Now the tiny chaps were fighting each other to get their mothers attention to tell their stories at school. Arun was looking at his Mother’s bag for that occasional snacks that she brings from office. As the tiffin box opened, there were two crispy looking banana fries and both the children crunched and enjoyed it to their satisfaction.
Time was slowly slipping by and Lakshmi started her studies and the tiny one, was still sticking around with his Mother in the kitchen. He was then asked to go and do his homework which he hated .Though uninterested still, he went to the small room in which both the children used to study and took his clumsy looking books and started doing it.
The cloudy sky haven’t recovered even at that time. Small patches of lightning keep flashing at the closed window and Arun in the excitement went close to the window and touched the glasses, trying to feel the lightning and trying to get his hands photographed. But the danger was yet to come and the small one never expected it. As more lightning started flashing and the wind started humming through the air holes, the sudden rupturing sound of Thunder was heard and the small one fled to the Kitchen in fear, with his index fingers deep inside his ears. The little boy who didn’t knew the physics of lightning and thunder, was totally terrified by fear.
Mother seeing her two little ones, finished off her Kitchen works and slowly moved to the room in which both used to sleep. The wind was getting more and more fierce. Its intensity could be heard as it gasped and gurgled past the airholes. The strong winds as it battered the window with rain droplets took away the electricity with it. This wasn’t of any suprise to anyone, only thing is that the powercut happened bit later than it normally used to happen. The swagging electric lines and trees near the lines were always held culprit for this.
As the lights went off Arun was even more afraid and to fuel his fear, strong thunder kept crashing down one after the other, at times breaking it normal rhythm. Time slowly slipped by, and in the candle light inside the room he could see a small bat flying in and out through the airholes to feel the warmth inside. The bat drew Arun’s attention from thunder as the heavy torrent of rain continued outside. In the lightning the violent nature of wind which moved the trees were visible in the window. This imagery of the trees conjured the thoughts of ghosts in his mind. With more fear in his mind he hugged his Mother and was praying for all this to end. As the lightning kept visiting through the window in frequent intervals, there were a few new visitors inside the room, who flashed tiny light in frequent intervals but without any rupturing sound. It were two tiny fire flies which would have felt jealous of the lightning and moved indoors hoping to get some attention. Arun slowly flashed a small smile in his face and slowly loosened his grip from his mother and ventured to catch the fire flies. The fire files have bought some smile on his face and he continued his unsuccessful attempts to catch the flies as they tricked him moving up and down so the little one couldn’t catch them. As this game went on and on, frequency of lightning had decreased, thunder had grown distant and rain had lessened. The little boy Arun, without knowing this continued playing with the flies.
Simple Minds 
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