Rainy days are here again!

Even as I contemplated moving to the new city, one of the things that had always fazed me about it was the legendary monsoon season. Lasting two to two and a half months, the monsoons here meant heavy rains, all day, all night with breaks so short that if you blinked you would miss it. Its not like I had lived in the desert before, but in all the cities of my past, I considered the rains 'manageable'.

My relationship with the rains has always been a love-hate one. Unlike most people, I love the rains... with conditions attached. If I am indoors, dry and warm, I can watch the rain pour down for hours especially if accompanied by its own sound & light show - thunder and lightning. A hot cuppa tea and snacks would make it even better. I love the smell of mud as the first drops fall on the dry, dusty earth... something I always look forward to. The trees all look clean and greener than they did all year.

But I simply draw the line at having to endure it all day, all night. I have to see the Sun! How can one bear to not feel the warmth for so long...?!! However cliched it might sound, after days of grey, gloomy skies, my mood starts matching it too. So when the sun suddenly breaks through the clouds, it lifts my spirits like nothing else can at that moment.

The only time I can bear to be in the rain outside is if I am wearing the right clothes, rain gear in hand and suitable footwear too. When (in foolish optimism that the rain will hold off for a while) I have stepped out in clothes that would cling to me at the very sight of rain or footwear that would soak in water like sand in the desert, I have obviously got caught in the rain and simply hated it. Not to mention the motorists who think you are fair game to be splashed by puddles or maybe they just couldn't care less. Surprisingly, it has happened more times that I would care to admit. Then there are days I have carried an umbrella and wondrously, almost every time I have come back home without it.

The rains have also brought with it allergies, coughs and colds for me. Small stuff that doesn't affect me for long, but it is there nevertheless waiting to catch hold of me as the first drops hit the ground. And my very curly hair turns frizzy and springs up and about as if with a life of its own.

To go back to the beginning of this post, I moved to this new city and in a couple of months faced its hot, humid summers and almost immediately the rainy season. The start of the monsoon was every bit as real I had heard and I wondered how I would get through the season. Within a fortnight though, the heavy downpours had petered off and it was just a shower now and then, sometimes only a drizzle. Of course, it meant that the rest of the year the city would face a water-crunch and most people I knew were apprehensive. But secretly, I was pleased, as wicked as it might sound.

Into my second year here, the monsoons have arrived. It is the second week and after fits and starts, it seems to have acquired its legendary status. And I am once again left wondering "how...how will I ever get through it?"