She felt the chill pass through her veins when the drop kissed her forehead! Then came another, one more and tip, tip, tip, the rain started. She veiled her face with her file and ran to the nearest small local cafe. People were already rushing to get saved from rains. Luckily, she caught a chair at a small table and ordered tea. She gazed out, sighed, it’s rains again, already! No wonder the scorching heat was unbearable but the rains, more nuisance. Stressed! She felt, deep in her thoughts, she gazed out.

That feeling when the room went dark and she was sneaking out of the window to find the grey formation of clouds around and screeching with delight watching them,”Mummy, it’s going to start raining, yay! Yay!” And this catching a glimpse of dark clouds and crying out silently,” The trains are going to be late, shit!” She grew up!

Opening up her little palms, enjoying the kisses of those cold droplets on her hands, trying to collect them all in her tiny clutches and now wiping her hands as soon as they got wet from rains, she grew up!

Closing her eyes, giving in herself to the sky, let the clouds get a better view of her face as they pour some rainy love on it to now shielding it with something so that her make up didn’t fade away, she grew up! I bet her wet innocence was more attractive than her dry make up!

Splash! Splash! One foot after the other and giggling loudly as she dashed through the paths after her friends to now double folding her denims and keeping each step lightly so that don’t even the slippers get some dirt of the rainy streets, She grew up!

Dancing freely to get more wetter than she already was to now hugging herself even more so as to avoid the drenched form, she grew up!

From enjoying the rainy long days from within the window to worrying about getting the washed clothes dry, she grew up!

A sigh passed her lips as she frowned thinking, the rains are the same as they were then, the grey colour of the clouds when it’s about to rain has been their tradition since infinity, the green grasses getting soft and muddy and the formation of those tiny puddles have been as it has been since years! Then what changed? Why can’t the rains now be the same as they were then?

what made her actually grow up? She glanced at the watch hanging, time? Time just passes, growing up is mandate, but time doesn’t restrict you from enjoying something that’s naturally beautiful! Then what? She saw the rush, she knew the answer already!!

The voices were clear even today, “wash off your feet, you splashed the whole puddle on your legs, wash them vigorously.” “Shhh! Don’t scream on just the sounds of the rains, so silly it looks!” “Why did you get drenched? You should have stood under some roof.” “Hey, change fast.You’ll catch cold otherwise.” These statements, these repeated commands, some way or another left a mark on her memory and ultimately her life.

It was the society! The society that forced her to grow up, the people around who created norms and broke them according to their conveniences and carved the same prints to the younger minds, just because they have been passed the inheritance of the same. This society which gradually changed the fun associated with nature into nuisance and the growing minds readily agreed to it and grew up defining it the same way to carry this tradition forward.

Growing up doesn’t means giving up joy and innocence, it’s rather a process to increase the same by passing it out to others. She stood up, smiled widely and knew what to do next!

The small crowd gathered near the cafe were smiling watching the lady who was enjoying rains with little kids of the area, as if she was one if them, as if she wasn’t a grown up!