66697602-The-Ramayana-R-K-Narayan

of rain which suddenly started after a brief interval of clear
weather.
The rains ended at last. The skies cleared. New leaves
appeared on the trees; jasmine and other fragrant flowers
bloomed. With brighter surroundings, Rama’s spirit also
quickened. Now he could move out of his ashram and act
positively.
With the end of the rainy season, nature’s traffic resumed
on land, air, and water. Flocks of swans crossed the sky;
cranes and aquatic birds flew by; a variety of fishes newly
spawned darted under the water surfaces. Lotus was in
bloom; frogs which had croaked themselves hoarse in
unison all through the wet days now were silent. Peacocks
came out into the sun shaking off clogging droplets of water
and fanning out their tails brilliantly. Rivers which had roared
and overflowed now retraced their modest courses and
tamely ended in the sea. Areca palms ripened their fruits in
golden bunches; crocodiles emerged from the depths
crawling over rocks to bask in the sun; snails vanished under
slush, and crabs slipped back under ground; that rare
creeper known as vanji suddenly burst into bloom with
chattering parrots perched on its slender branches.
All this was minutely noted by Rama, as indicating a
definite change of season and a reminder that Sugreeva
had failed to keep his promise to arrive with his army. He
said to Lakshmana, “Does it not seem that Sugreeva has