Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Dum dum diga diga
Mausam bheega bheega

The oppressively humid and sultry weather that Chennai has seen of late has been broken today by a few hours of good rain. Beautiful, wonderful rain.

I've just got back from a very peaceful and invigorating walk in the rain. I'm thoroughly drenched and thoroughly happy. I love rain. I share a very special relationship with it.

I have spent over 13 years of my life in Dubai. It's a mindblowingly awesome place, except for the fact that it rains only for a period of two months in a year, if at all. In addition, the rain is very ordered, soft and quiet, just like the traffic there. In fact, showers are mere sputterings of H2O from the clouds, and are barely worth being called rain. My first encounter with real rain came at the age of two when I visited Bombay (a notorious place for seasonal downpours). I was moved to tears. OK, to be frank, I was scared shitless. I had never known that rain could be so powerful, so angry, so evil (as it seemed to me at that age and size) and so LOUD. I burst out crying and ran to my mommy...

But over the years I've seen all types of rain, and have come to understand and appreciate its simple beauty. There's light, soft rain that caresses your skin. And the type of shower that feels like a million fairies planting soft kisses all over you. The 'shower' shower which is like, well, a shower in terms of force and droplet impact. Also the 'fat rain', as I call it, with big fat drops which is like a big fat auntyji planting a wet, sloppy kiss on your cheek. And the heavy types which pound into and onto you, similar to the manner in which my classmates attack me after a particularly unbearable pun. And, of course, the destructive and powerful big daddy type, which you can only stand aside and watch in sheer awe and curiously excited horror.

Rain always puts me in an exceedingly good mood. I tend to go about skipping and singing and dancing and generally losing all my inhibitions. There have been several ocassions when the old lady next door has given me a disapproving glance when I let out of whoop of joy on feeling the first few drops of rain...

Rain also puts me in an exceedingly romantic mood. But the dampener (pun intended!) is the fact that I generally don't have anyone to be romantic with... and no girl (next door or otherwise) gives me a glance (disapproving or otherwise) when I let out of whoop of joy on feeling the first few drops of rain...

It is undeniable that rain has been a very important part of my life. It forced me to stay indoors and study when I was younger. (I don't stay indoors now. Nor do I study, rain or otherwise) Monsoon duets exposed me to a whole new genre of love songs... and rain-drenched Hindi actresses sated my adolescent longings (Zeenat Aman in Satyam Sivam Sundaram : mmmm!). It's helped me make new friends (co-rain-lovers), and always cheers me up with either pass or compartment... er, without fail. It gives me a chance to curl up on the sofa with a hot cuppa and a good movie, and allows me to wash away my worries and grumpiness by going on long drives with the rain and wind in my face. It also eases the chronic water shortage that cripples the fine city of Chennai. (People say, "Save water; shower with your boy/girlfriend". For those without boy/girlfriends, I say, "Save water; don't bathe." You can save more than the mere two buckets you'd save with Surf. And don't worry, nobody will suspect a thing. I've managed a once-a-week-bath lifestyle for six years now.)

Rain also causes the city drains to clog up, leading to entire roads being submerged. It gives auto-drivers a ready excuse to hike fares 250%. Perhaps the most important effect is that a steady shower makes it damned difficult to get six copies of a 150 page project report printed and bound the day before the submission deadline. In the past, a downpour has resulted in my contracting leptospirosis. (If you would like the whole story - it's a long and entertaining one! - including graphic details of mid-thigh-high water levels and cockroaches climbing up my trouser leg, do leave a comment to that effect.) A sharp shower will result in stagnant pools that will breed mosquitoes which will keep me up until 3 a.m. killing them. And once the rain stops the general mugginess will be unbearable. Yup, rain can cause one hell of a lot of problems.

But, for now, as I see the tree branches bending gracefully under the force of the rain and take in the beautiful smell of fresh, wet earth, I can't help but praise Nature

Surat aapki subhan Allah, hai Allah,
Surat aapki subhan Allah.

8 comments:

Gayatri said...

hey... Rain is such an integral part of my life too.. Showers like this in summer are really rare!! So people, don't stay indoors.. Its a shame to do so!!

Anonymous said...

dai ac...

cut out the bull crap and stick to basic english. all of us know ur good in english so why the fuck flaunt it

a psbbian

Mercury said...

My comment is simple: Awesome Post!!!!

SV said...

Dude, you should listen to the Beatles' 'Rain' ! One of the best songs ever, and one of the first to use backward vocals and all !

AC said...

I'm sorry I didn't reply earlier, blogger's been acting up and I haven't been able to post comments...


Nice blog, confused! And yeah, anyone who stays indoors ought to be shot or made to listen to me sing or something...

Thanks mercury :)

AC said...

Yup, downloaded it as soon as I read your post... and I liked it! Which is kinda of surprising since historical precedent-wise I usually don't like songs recommended by others (not a matter of policy, just one of chance!)

And dear fellow-psbbian... I must disabuse of the erroneous perception that my writing and vocabulary is incomprehensible to the vast majority of carbon-based biped life forms as it so patently appears to be to you. I suggest you use a dictionary. Thank you and have a nice day. Or, Appu style, Thank you, come again!

Srikar said...

Yeah that was a much needed relief for all of us in chennai. You know what I did when it started to rain ? I got out my digi-cam and went on a shooting spree. . .

Jaya said...

A kindred spirit! It's great to come across another person who likes to get drenched in the rain without worrying about what people around (and parents) think/say. I really enjoyed the part about the various kinds of raindrops. Have you put up the leptospirosis story? I'd like to know more about it...and obviously people doing a Google search for it will end up here, so you'll have one more search string for your blog. (Sorry if my comments are too long; I was never good at precis writing.)