Rain

    Is it the rhythmic pitter patter, the moisture laden air just before the storm rolls in, the way it makes the ground smell ? Whatever it is, it is an enchanting experience. I find it calming, relaxing and peaceful. It makes me want to do things, be places.

    If I'm watching it from my window, it brings back memories only it has the power to unlock. Puddles, paperboats, umbrellas and pakodas. Rude motorists riding right through puddles splashing dirty water on the unsuspecting pedestrians. Raindrops hitting on my  face while sitting on the window seat of public transport buses. And so on and so on.

    If I'm in it, it seems to wash away everything that I feel. All I feel is the rain and that is pure happiness. I love the power of rain. Sometimes you catch the rain when you're out on long walks or riding your bike. Sometimes you dash into the rain in a fit, needs inspired by movies and books on mind , hoping for absolution, or something life-altering. Regardless of why you're out there, all you do is get really wet and everything just becomes background noise.Its just pure, honest rain and it has all of your attention. Soon there is nothing but the rain. If you ask me, that is one cool  meditation package!

    It may just be what the earth asks for. Have you ever seen the plants right after the rain? They perk up like its no man's business. All summer long, I would tend to them like they were my babies, watering them, pulling the weeds growing near them and even talk to them sometimes. (My neighbor thinks that I'm crazy, but hey, I think I'm crazy as well.). And then a short rain shower would sweep all of it away and make all my work meaningless. It would seem as though that the caress of the raindrops made my plants forget me. All the plants (even the grass) transform after they've experienced rain. Well, that's nature for ya. Its like a child who is taken care of by the babysitter when the mom arrives to take the child home. It doesn't matter how well the child and the sitter connect, how happy the child is when they play together. One look at Mom and all that the babysitter did for the child becomes non-existent in the child's mind.

    I came across this book on a blog ‘Chasing the monsoons: A modern pilgrimage through India’ by Alexander Frater. Following is the description of the book on Amazon.

“On 20th May the Indian summer monsoon will begin to envelop the country in two great wet arms, one coming from the east, the other from the west. They are united over central India around 10th July, a date that can be calculated within seven or eight days. Alexander Frater aims to follow the monsoon, staying sometimes behind it, sometimes in front of it, and everywhere watching the impact of this extraordinary phenomenon. During the anxious period of waiting, the weather forecaster is king, consulted by pie-crested cockatoos, and a joyful period ensues: there is a period of promiscuity, and scandals proliferate”

    I can imagine the anxiety during the waiting and the relief and elation upon arrival of the first rains. Be it a lowly farmer whose existence still depends on the erratic monsoons, or rich City boy who lives most of the time in his air conditioned environment, everyone waits for the monsoons. Everyone loves the rains.