Some
days you get up with a glorious sense of purpose, filled with positivity and an
urge to complete all the pending tasks, take on new ones and have a productive,
energized day where at the end of it you feel satisfied with the
accomplishments of said day and a sense of fulfilment.
Today
is NOT one of those days for me. I have them on and off, but not today.
Today
is one of those days, where I want the dull overcast skies to open up and
browbeat us into submission, into taking shelter and watching the rains pelt
down.
Today
is one of those days where I want to laze about my cosy flat, sipping endless
cups of masala chai, observing the clouds pass by, munching on potato chips and
surrendering myself to binge-watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
You,
of course can see where I am going with this right!
I
miss the rains. I am not a true blue pluviophile. Rather I am a recent convert.
For
the longest time ever I hated the rains. Hate is a very strong word though; I just
didn’t like them rains. And being from a place that worships and heralds the showers,
I didn’t quite understand the whole fuss about it except that the crops and the
running water depended on it. To me, the
rains were symbolic of early morning cuddling inside the bedsheet, not wanting
to go to school, uniforms that never dried and the slush and mud that soaked
through the shoes and socks. School always reopened after the summer vacation
at the outbreak of the monsoons and it was simply uncanny how it always used to
end up raining exactly around the time we had to leave for school.
But
off late, I crave for these bursts. Being in a place where rains are more like ‘switch-on-switch-off’
phenomenon, I miss the monsoons back home dreadfully. In fact, my whirlwind
trip this time home had a specific wish attached to it. R.A.I.N.S. And I got my
wish and quite a lot of it too. :)
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| (C) Aishwarya Ananth |
I
think there is a deep bond that is attached to it, that I have discovered recently.
The
smell of the earth, the feel of those first few beads hitting you squarely, the
first blast of the chillness that knocks into you, the puddles, the splashes,
the leaves tinged with the dewy droplets, the feet that get wet soaked through
the sandals that you wear, the sense of calmness that pervades you, the beating
heart that settles into the rhythm of the pitter-patters on the rooftop, the
nostalgia that engulfs you, the feeling of freshness, new starts and that of
washing away vestiges of despair and ire. …. I can go on and on… and of course
curling up with a hot tea, a book and enjoying the rains never really hurt
anyone, did it? ;) :)
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| (c) Aishwarya Ananth |
I
understand that feeling now. The fuss that people back home make about the rainstorms.
There really is no comparison, is there? I have seen and felt the rains at
plenty of places. But nothing really compares to the feeling that you get when
you enjoy it back at the hometown – the place that you are born and raised.
And
that my dear friends, is a feeling akin to nothing else.
