Petrichor

 

After a prolonged summer, the first shower of the season made the atmosphere cool. The petrichor filled the surroundings. Vanita was exhilarated with the aroma. She quickly came out into the garden of her small bungalow in Nashik. She wanted to get drenched in the first drizzle.  The rain God obliged and the drizzle continued for some more time. The passing cloud was large enough that even the strong breeze could not put a stop to the generous fall of the light water droplets.

Vanita was enjoying the episode. That evoked a plethora of emotions that dragged her into the period of college days 5 years back. 

That was the send-off party for the Engineering students who had passed out the Bachelor of Engineering. Vanita had reached the college a bit late. Many students had already gathered. While talking to her friends, her eyes were searching Satish. She had heard that he also had passed out with very good grades. But she wanted to meet him. Wanted to know his plans. And she spotted him. Quickly she approached him.

“Hi Satish! Congratulations.”

Satish was delighted to see her. “Thanks, Vanita. Congrats to you too.”

“Thanks Satish. What are your future plans? What are you going to do further?”

“I am going to do M.Tech from I.I.T. Tomorrow only I am going to fill in the form for GATE. I want to do post graduation in Robotics. What about you?”

“I have not finalized yet. But I also want to do post-graduation. I don’t think I.I.T. is within my reach. I will take admission in Mumbai University only.”

“Ay, come on. Why don’t you also appear for GATE? I am going to apply for GATE, tomorrow. Why don’t you join me? We both will go to I.I.T.”

Vanita remembered, they both applied for entrance test G.A.T.E. Both got admitted in I.I.T. Satish & Vanita got their preferred subjects, Satish got Robotics and Vanita got I.T. After their post-graduation, they both got placed in Mumbai in different companies.

Slowly their friendship, made them the first choice as their life partners.

Vanita analysed Satish’s behaviour. She found him ambitious, hard- working and compassionate too. Satish also wanted to check whether Vanita was fit as a life partner. He was impressed by her career-oriented behaviour, being cheerful and caring. He liked her hobbies of trekking, hiking etc. as he himself loved nature. After scrutinizing pros and cons, they agreed that they were appropriate for each other as life partners.

Got married and started happily their new life. The thick bond of love between the two souls was like bright moonlight spreading a web of affection.

A year passed merrily.

But slowly small disagreements started surfacing. A small spark started inflaming frequently. The behavioural qualities that were appreciated earlier had turned into the cause of resentment. A war of words was a regular occurrence.

Finally, Satish and Vanita reached a stage when they decided to consider the option of separating permanently. Divorce.

Vanita was perturbed. How could a person considered wonderful on many fronts just before a few months suddenly turn to be indignant on many occasions?

“ Probably, I have changed my outlook. I am focusing on the matters of dissonance. I have become more critical of where we discord.

Satish is still wonderful if I interact with him the same way when I had liked him. He has not changed at all. But we both have started emphasizing on the matters of our differences. We are overlooking the points on which we agree.

Adjustment. That is the key to happiness in every life. Also, the matters must not be blown out of proportion. We have to be flexible to accept the partner with the small little disagreements. We must not fall into the trap of ‘the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence.’

How can two personalities with plethora of emotions, match cent percent with each other? A discord on one point is very likely to be followed by concurrence  on some other front. Each personality has to be mature enough to treat the disagreement with due importance.

 A painting with only matching colours turns out a bland outcome. A dash of contrasting colours makes it attractive, isn’t it?

Even the petrichor! The wonderful aroma comes after the first rain only after the earth gets baked in the summer, a very hot summer. If it would rain ceaselessly, keeping the environment cool and wet throughout, the petrichor would not get produced. 

That is nature. Some discord is essential to make the life lovable. But one has to learn to adjust. Some sort of give and take.” Vanita resolved and returned into the house. She decided to change herself. The word “adjustment” had got deeply embedded in her mind.

Satish returned home from the office. On finding Vanita completely wet, he exclaimed, “You were not supposed to go to office. How did you get wet?”

“Satish, the first rain of the season is always alluring me. The mesmerising petrichor. Whenever possible, I try to get drenched in the first rain of the season. I was at home and it rained, How could I miss the opportunity? I enjoyed the occasion.“

“That is nice. But when did it rain? I think it rained 3-4 hours ago. And you have not changed yet?”

“Satish, I got wet. It dragged me into introspecting myself.”

“Oh, that is great! What did you think over?”

“Satish, I realized that l in the last few months our points of disagreements have increased considerably. I feel we are getting irritated over each other more than being happy with each other. That should be stopped at the earliest.”

“How great! While looking at the first rains from the window, I was also enthralled. Due to the airconditioned office, I missed the enchanting  petrichor but I too got into analysing our behaviour during the last couple of months. Worried a bit, I had decided to sort out the matters with you once I get back home. And here you are! We will finish our dinner first, then we will mull over the situation.”

After dinner, both of them opened their books of behavioural accounts.

Started writing off the dues from each one. And at the end they found the balance sheet of their life leaning heavily towards a surplus. A big amount of credit balance.

At the beginning of dawn, they cuddled each other and got drenched in showers of love.