This is in response to Sadje's Weekly Photo Prompts on #Whatdoyousee
Post COVID we were relieved - unmasked! Those thin veils covered half the faces except the eyes. As if we couldn't get infected by sight or infect the others with our eyes. Now, with the masks 'blown off' I miss those half hidden faces. That flimsy barrier which gave an honest peek into what was endeavoured to be kept undisclosed. The face is not the index of the mind. Eyes are...And the eyes gave away even with the masks on...
When we were small summer nights had their own charm. In the evenings, pails and pails of water were poured on the heated terrace. It didn't take much time for the water to evaporate cooling the floor on which were placed thin mattresses and soft sheets at night after dinner. Some days a soothing breeze blew while on others the weather remained dry. Pedestal fans were much in use in those days - nobody had heard of coolers or air conditioners. We slept underneath an inky blue sky counting stars and wondering what lay beyond the periphery of this earth and why didn't the moon drop off on the ground tired of smiling from afar.
Some nights a sudden dust storm, called aandhi, would wake us up in the middle of the night followed by big drops of rain. We'd pick up our beddings and rush for shelter either to our bedrooms on the floor below or to the room next to the terrace called the barsaati - a room to save ourselves from getting drenched in the rains or barsaat.
Now, as evening approaches we shut the doors and the windows, draw the curtains and switch on the AC. Sometimes even the AC is not good enough as the barometer crosses fifty degrees. We sweat , toss and turn in bed and pray for the rains to come and cool off the heat.
In the sky outside the stars feel lonely and the moon wonders whether it would be better to slide through that window where a little baby sleeps under the mosquito net. But the windows are closed. The baby is restless. And the Milky Way has just lost its way...
