One time of the year that I completely find irresistible and totally refreshing is the monsoon season! It’s not like I don’t enjoy the other times. I adore winters. Snuggling up inside the covers, reading a good book against the window, colorful woolen hats, mufflers and gloves, warming your hands on a mug of hot coffee, sitting with your parents with heaters on having peanuts, napping on your terrace soaking in the wonderful winter sun.. But the rains! They just do something to me. The smell of wet mud, and the sound of the drops of rain falling on your umbrella, jumping in water puddles, leaning out your verandah, feeling the drops fall on your face, having hot pakoras with tea! I still remember how, as tiny kids we would make paper boats and sail them in on the roads outside our house. And how we would hope for it to rain so that we could show off our new umbrellas and colorful raincoats!
I get this excited, jumpy, exhilarating feeling whenever it starts to pour. And I just cannot stop myself from going out and getting completely soaked! Lately it has been raining heavily almost everyday! It’s remarkable how my mood stays in sync with the weather! If it’s sunny and hot, I’ll be all sullen and dull. If it’s windy and rainy, I’ll be “Wee-ing” all over the place! My excitement level also increases as the rain starts to fall harder and faster!
Today turned out to be a surprisingly fun day. It was one of my friends [Smriti (the OTHER Smritis)] birthday. So we went to her place to give her this little surprise thing we had planned for her! Some of her other friends had decorated her apartment, blown balloons and that sort of thing. When we were done with all the ‘Surpriiiiiiiiiiiiise’ yelling and birthday wishing, and squealing and hugging sessions, we realized that it was pouring cats and dogs and horses and elephants outside! She suddenly exclaimed, “Let’s go on the terrace!!” And like small kids, we screamed and ran up to her terrace (which was on the 6th floor). It was amazing, the gush of wind, the awesome thunder clouds, the huge plump water drops which in a matter of seconds completely drenched us from head to toe! I spread out my arms and looked towards the sky and had this massive smile on my face. In no time, we were running all over her terrace and jumping in the water puddles playing splish-splash like toddlers! We were singing songs, and trying out various innovative dance moves and just being simply crazy. The view was invigorating, I could see the fields, the houses, the roads, the trees, everything just seemed so fresh and bright and new! Smriti’s mom clicked our pictures (and we made lunatic poses) and after we were done, she gave us fluffy towels to dry ourselves with, because we were dripping wet. After we all changed, we were welcomed by the sight of hot big samosas and steaming cups of coffee and a chocolate cake on the table! Ah, what could have been better?
As we sat there, wolfing down the samosas, cake and sipping coffee and chatting and laughing away to glory, I got this warm feeling in my belly. Some days turn out to be way better than you can expect. Who would have thought, when we were there, sitting in out classroom and listening to our Computer science teacher babbling god-knows-what, that after some time we would be having the time of our lives in the rain?
As always the whole bright, beautiful atmosphere made me hum a very suitable song. It is called ‘Drops of Earth’ by a very talented band, which is not known to many people, ‘Advaita’:
”In this rain as it falls
Back to life come days long gone
When we raced for some cover
Drenched in drops of earth all over
Clouds admired then drops we chased
Felt the mist in that rain
Run and hide and splashed all over
Made a friend once again
In that rain..”
I completely fell in love with today. I was looking forward to such a thing, you know. I mean, getting wet alone is another thing and having a rain dance party with friends is totally another! Don’t you think it such an ammmazing aspect of nature? I mean its water! And it just… falls! On everything! Wow! (Do I sound insane? :P ) It is like a gigantic shower somewhere in the sky!
Sometimes life gives you moments that you can look back on and cherish even after years and years and years. Today has been one such day! Cheers to the rains! :D
i still remember i had (and i still use it, :p) this 'square'-shaped umbrella which no one had and used to take it everyday to school during th monsoon, irrespective of th weather that day, just to show it off, ;)
ReplyDeleteand paper boats.. wow.. i just made some here today and let them float in th water-logged park here.. everytime i get drenched in th rain, it's a new experience altogether..
went to this waterpark yesterday.. and it even rained yesterday when we were all inside.. wave-pool+rainfall!
hey seems you had a gala time. i wish u have a life full if such moments!
ReplyDeletebut it seems you are happier with ur friends than u are with us. at home u are mostly cranky, sleepy. and u are either on the fone or the net or in ur room. x-(
And hey u can put a comment moderation on ur blog. if u do this any comment will have to be approved by you before it is published. and u can put a email notification so that if anyone comments on a post u will get a notification thru email. All these options will be somewhere in the settins tab!