Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Monsoons

Monsoons are round the corner. Its time again for sleeping late and hurrying to office through the damp, wet streets...I always used to believe that rainy season itself used to bring in a specific state of mind...sometimes it made me feel very homesick,regardless of whether i was in school,college or at work....i wanted to just tuck into my bed and stay there for long hours when it poured outside....or maybe with a nice book in my arms, the rain outside would provide just the perfect ambience...

When i was in school there have been occasions when i used to love or hate rains. I always wanted to sleep longer when it rained and disliked having to get ready for school.My mom and grandmom used to have a fanatical approach to the idea of us (me and brother) getting wet in the rain.Even if it was slightly drizzling outside , mom would glance across the sky and spot dark clouds in the waiting list to rain that day.Next step was to dress us both in watertight raincoats , an additional cap and an umbrella to beat the rain.No amount of pleading or reasoning or threatening would make the slightest effect on her as far as this subject was concerned, sometimes she looked more like a dictator to me.It was her firm belief that we were born delicate(i really dont know what put that idea into her head) and that the slightest drop of rain could land us in bed with a viral fever which would last from 2 weeks to a month... Doomed in that costume which looks more like an outfit for a spacetraveller or an alien from a different planet, we stand in front of our home waiting for the auto rickshaw which took us to school.....

Classrooms were wet , dripping umbrellas and muddy shoes everywhere , some students themselves dripping from head to toe , i concluded then that they should come from very uncaring parents who didnt bother to see if their children were getting drenched in the rains and getting fevers....i felt like exchanging mine for theirs then...

When classes were conducted , more of the teacher's voice was submerged in the noise we made than the rain outside .Teachers always complained that we were unmanageable when it rained...sometimes when it rained cats and dogs outside and we had to close all the doors and windows to ward off the rainwater , there would be power failures and it would be so dark and cold with us not being able to see each other's faces .Shobha ma'am, our primary school teacher, used to tell us stories in those moments....those are one of the most cherished moments of childhood...she had that ability to dramatize and narrate all sorts of stories , from movies , books or real life as if it had been happening before our very eyes....

We lived near the beach . When dad came back from his office at the lighthouse, he would be full of news of fishing boats which went missing , how much the violent sea has come up to the lighthouse compound wall and what other destruction has been caused by the storm.

It wasnt great having exams on rainy days .Rains and the tensions associated with an exam just didnt go together. Rains meant a time to relax , when we wouldnt have to find excuses for coming late to class or work . If i had had anything to do with it , i will have no exams scheduled during the monsoons . We just cant study when all the world is chilling out :-) .Someone needs to enlighten our universities and exam boards...

'Ugh...this rain , when will it stop?, all the dirt of the city gushing over our feet...' True enough , but neverthlesss rains are beautiful , the cooling effect they have on our soul and body after the scorching summers is matchless.......
A loving welcome to another south-west monsoon....

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Very good observation .. true to heart too..taken me to my past days .. I too agree that eventhough rain caused so many disturbances in our school days and also influenced our gloomy mindsets for those rainy days, somehow I like RAIN very much :-) As some poet said it is a laugh of our mother nature ...

Now a comment on your writing .. you definitely have a good command in the language you write.. the most prevailing thing to observe is that you are one among few people who got blessed with a capability to observe and express the mind's feelings in such a lovely and 'heart-digestible' language ... keep it up sister :-)

Soorya said...

KK : thank you!

Rat said...

"i felt like exchanging mine for theirs then..."
Thats a super truly funny childish line :-))

ArunSen said...

"Next step was to dress us both in watertight raincoats , an additional cap and an umbrella to beat the rain".I used to cry when my parents force me to get into that raincoats.Thanks for taking me to those days!!!.I love rains and would like to look outside when it is raing.But I knew that during Monsoons rains make life of lots of people a mess.I never thought this much about rains and change in our lifes during the rainy seasons.Nice material and simple language.I liked it..
Thank you,
Arun.

Anonymous said...

Nice to read your posts Soorya...The way you wrote made me imagine all those scenes one by one. Getting wet in rain and sitting in the class was something i hated during those school days. While reading about the rain coat, i was remembered of the time i used to go with my father in his scooter wearing the raincoat.While the scooter moves, water will strike on my face.... I went back to all those golden times once more for some time(not that now its bad.. :-) )

Keep writing

Soorya said...

Thank you Sheeja!