Snow

I remember my first experience in snow. I was so excited that I played in snow for almost 15 minutes. How I remembered the poem “ SNOW… gently falling, floating down over me and you, standing here standing there the snow is falling. White flakes come down from heaven above coming down like angels the snow is falling”. Robert Frost and Max Lehram would have given their approval for my love for snow. They would have said what a fine boy I am for carrying on their fervor for snow. But my notion changed when I had a shovel in my hand and a whole driveway to clean. How Robert Frost and Max Lehram would have turned into their grave when I would, instead of poem for snow, hissing/outbursting profanity for the snow.

During my first year in Univeristy, I was staying as a PG with a couple who had 2 kids. There were 2 of my friends who were staying with me as PG. So total there were this uncle, aunty, their son, their crazy daughter and 3 of us. Now this house was big and it had 2 doors garage so naturally the driveway would be big. Whenever we would come from the university and would see snow falling, profanity would find its way automatically into my mind. The whole way from University to house, we would curse it. At that time I did say that if somebody finds snow light, better refer them to me. I had a piece of mind to give them.

Aunty was kindhearted and she saw our appalling conditions so she asked uncle to buy a snow mover. Eureka, we were excited just to hear that. Atleast there is some hope for our poor backs. Uncle of course had to agree because queen ruled this palace. We went to the store bought a good 50 HP snow mover costing around $750. We were in state of euphoria. No more profanity for snow when it comes, now for a change we will once again enjoy it.

We were discussing this when we were coming back from University to home. We were thinking let it snow let it snow let it snow, no more shoveling and what do we see when we come back home. The drive way isn’t clean and the son is trying to start the snow mover. No, we weren’t crestfallen but were excited cause the son was trying to start the first time. Yea, the petrol has been filled up and now all it needs it’s a pull to start the mover. We gather around the mover anticipating the roaring of the 50HP beast. 4-5 pulls are done excitedly but all the beast managed to do was cough. Oops, our smiles were disappearing from our faces. We checked to make sure the petrol’s there and the tank is full. The instruction manual was checked to make sure we didn’t amiss anyting. Soon we were cursing, what kind of crap is this. Its new costing $750 and not working the first day. The son faithfully shows us our shovels and says get started, he is joining as soon as he wears the jacket and cap.

My friend starts kicking the machine and instead of stopping him, I joined him too. Its only later when the third friend comes to our..no sorry machines rescue and asks us to stop it. We were fuming. The heat was enough to melt all the snow in the driveway. He got so angry that he was pushing beyond human endurance. We were impressed and inspired but he was like a human machine, kicking the snow and shovel and basically doing work in 10 minutes which took the son and me half an hour. It was latter part of the day that I had to rub pain reliever on his back and shoulders. He was that pissed.

Then comes the fun part. We had to sprinkle salt on the steps and the driveway leading to the basement. Now this salt is not like the one we eat. Its solid and like small pebbles. We were generous in spreading on the steps. The idea was that if overnight it snows, because of the salt sprinkled on the steps, in the morning atleast the steps wont be covered with snow. So my friend and I would sprinkle generous portion of it so that we wouldn’t have to clean the drive and steps. Even the son concurred with our theory. He would sprinkle generous portion too. In 3 days we finshed whole 1 kg of bag…oops uncle was angry. So after that he would stand like a nazi general and we would get as much ration as during the world war, the nazi camp prisoners would get. Uncle would give us a minute portion of salt to spread. I would try to calculate how can I cover the whole steps in this microscopic amount. I would ofcourse think of asking for another ration but uncle would be standing like a hitler and I would think too bad for those who would be crossing the steps in the morning. Usually It would be us or aunty only. We had to carry the risk. Anyway later on the beast did start and we got relieved from shoveling.

There are these happy and humorous experiences with snow and I intend to cherish it as long as I can remember. Let it snow let it snow let it snow…Let uncle for a change learn new words of profanity when its snowing and the machine is not working.