Friday, August 8, 2014

On one such rainy day !


Summer just started less than 2 months ago and already weather is cooling down for us, and I can start to see slight color change on some of the Maple trees.... which makes me think that probably we are up for early fall this year... Today's post was due for sometime in my mind and is so much tied to summer. So I better get it out before summer ends...:)

Its about Summer Rains...

I have loved rain as long as i can remember.. My earliest memory of rains dates back to the time when my Dad was posted for an year at Air-force base at Kumbhirgram in Indian'a Eastern state, Assam . Small town tucked in the border of India and Bangladesh. So small that there was no school in that town (at that time). Kids of that Air-force base would travel on Ghat slippery roads to nearby city Silchar, which is about 30 Kms away. I was in my 3rd grade(I think), this bus ride to school was my worst nightmare, mostly because of my motion sickness...
Only pleasant memory I have of this awful school bus ride is that of "Rain". As I remember, it rained every single single day in that place!

Though I was too young to remember much about this place.. yet there are some glimpses of beauty of this place which are still fresh in my eyes and mind. Beauty that cannot be described in words.

And sometime in between all these ...
Some time in between..
.

Watching rain fall, from my school bus window, tapping windows as if its trying to have conversation with me, consoling me and then slithering off..
Watching rain fall on those ghat roads that this bus is taking turns on.. making these roads as wet and slithery they can get...
Getting wet every single day at school going between classrooms ...
Playing on that wet playground at school and coming home with drenched shoes ....
Eager to see my mom at the end of my day, who is standing in rain, waiting for me at the bus stop with an umbrella and flash light, with her saree ends and flip flops completely soaked in water..
Waking up every day to a crisp clean canvas of nature with numerous different shades of green(s) and blue(s)
Watching every flora and fauna snuggle and grow in this wet land around me..
Beauty of this place with all these overflowing rivers,streams and waterfalls..
Watching boats made of bamboo sticks tied together floating in those rivers and streams
Watching and hearing rain fall on the bamboo roof of our Assam type Bamboo house...
Helping my mom with rearranging furniture while rain is dripping inside our bamboo house...


Sometime in between.. I fell in love... love of my lifetime.. "Rain".

Experiencing rain day in and day out has its own beauty and experiencing rain on a hot summer days has a complete different story to tell .

Summer rains ......, Its Monsoon season in India. What can i say about it, you just have to be there, feel it, experience it and live it .. Oh my.. I love Monsoon days!!! I love that smell of dirt just before rain hits hard on the hot ground! I miss that feel of rain pouring as if sky has open its love for us... ! I miss those college days where all my friends would keep our umbrella's in our bags with an excuse of sharing one so we do get wet, stand in the rain,completely dripping from head to toe, in front of street corn vendor, right outside our college campus, who is baking hot hot corn on the burning hot charcoal. Baked hot corn with lime and a pinch of salt and red pepper on it. YUMM!!!
Come home all wet and jump on to Mom made hot pakoras with cup of hot milk with Bournvita. Well what can replace that on a rainy day.. !! Do I miss all that?? I cannot express how much! Yet no complains...and you will soon know why??

So what if I don't get to live in the land of Monsoons and feel them any more ..
Mother nature is not completely rude to my part of the world either! Here if we have hot summers we also have drenched out rainy days with lots of thunderstorms. What if it doesn't pour continuously for days ... it does rain almost every evening of summer days.



Today is one such day .....
Here is the capture of my outlook towards a rainy day!

Trying to capture clouds as its pouring and making sure that I don't wet my camera..
Not very successful with that. Yet love this capture for all the dark clouds..

Depressing some might think - wet slate roofs, grey skies, shiny roads, damp walkways - but I like it.



Out of many reasons for my love for rain....Here are glimpses explaining some of them..


It is the divine sound of rain falling... making music where ever it falls.. be it silky soft petals or on hard surface.
Every landing has a music and beauty to share...





Its the sight of everything being washed, cleaned and sparkling...




Sight of wet leaves...



Soggy fallen flowers...



Beauty of my garden when flowers want to hold on to those dropletts as long as they can...









My Vegtable garden.. Green and Happy.. as if its been just fed and is all satisfied...


My collection of Indian Jasmine - Right after rain, with lingering devine fragrance....



While everything around is getting wet.. There are canopies if you don't want to get wet...



Well.. someone is in no mood to hide under canopies!!



Every accent in my garden has some happy story to share..






So what if I do not have those friends around me with whome i have shared little joys of rainy days...

Now I have my princess, who knows how to enjoy rainy days, even more than I do...



Of course.. I do crave for Pakoras made by my Mom, on a rainy day..
Replacing them with hot Vadas on one such rainy day is my way of improvising memorable memories...



Rainy days.. in different phases of my life had different stories to tell...
This was a short story of one such rainy day ..



PS: All images are clicked by me and are from my home and are subjected to copyright. Please Do NOT use without prior permission.

~Prasanna