66697602-The-Ramayana-R-K-Narayan

can do for me.” When Sugreeva still pressed his invitation,
Rama said, “I have lost my wife; and I should not be said to
be enjoying the luxuries of a palace, when perhaps she is
undergoing untold suffering somewhere.” After sending away
Sugreeva and Hanuman, Rama turned back with
Lakshmana, to reside on a hill. At a chosen spot,
Lakshmana, displaying again his genius as an architect,
constructed an ashram—in which they could spend the
coming rainy months and where Rama could serenely
contemplate his future course of action.
The sun began to move southward. Dark clouds, heavily
laden, floated along, frequently eclipsing the sun, gradually
massing themselves like an army of gigantic elephants;
thunders rumbled and roared, lightning lit up the sky and the
earth end to end. Storm shook the trees, ripped off their
foliage, and scattered it in the air; scoured the earth and
sprayed up mud and dust. Just as we felt the total heat and
aridity where Thataka used to roam, now we must feel under
our skin the dampness, the dimness, and the apparent
lifelessness of the rainy days.
All through the months, the rains poured, waters running,
rushing, and stagnating in pools, and sometimes carrying
down boulders or the portion of a mountainside. Cuckoos
and nightingales were silent. Peacocks were unseen. Other
creatures of the forest were incarcerated in stony recesses
and caves. No animal stirred out. No movement. Every kind