THE MONSOONS............

Dark cumulo nimbus clouds....continuous lightening..that seemed to tear apart the horizon...followed by rattling thunder....the build up to heavy rains.......always drew me to the comfortable lap of my mother.....she would answer all my eager questions....how god of wind varun and indra driving his chariot with white horses from indra lok...were bringing rain from there on she would take me in to the world of mythology...Ramayana ,Mahabharat and invariably my favorite Hanuman..

For a nation whose Sensex shoots up or down like a thermometer depending on the intensity of monsoons....the rains are a welcome relief....Rains to me a s a toddler...also meant bunking the upper primary school of the village..forget about rain capes...there were no umbrellas even ...the priority was quite low...with only the huge black umbrella reserved for dad to go to his office.....

The country side which I invariably explored like a Tom Sawyer...would begin to swell with streams and rivulets (vagulu..as they would call it in my native tongue)....the country side would change over night from a brown parched arid land to dotting green....like the gods from above laid a newly made green carpet......rains had only one negative point....my dad stopped buying mangoes once the first rains were received...he would say that it wasn't good to buy mangoes once rains set in.....

Who doesn't want to get wet in rain...show me one earthling...forget about homosapiens....every bit of Flora and fauna..seems to enjoy it...The rains occasionally brought VADA GALLU....little hail storm.....ice cubicles thrown from the sky... i remember this terrifying experience..as a little kid....deafening noise on the mangalore tiled roof....me and my sister pushing a bucket and collecting all the hails...of course they were taste less..pure water...with so many of us living in the house it was always interesting...my colourful aunts...giggling...and we all siblings finding a nice lap to sit on..and watch the chita pata...chinukulu....of the first rain..nice warm smell of hot earth being drenched in rain....

Me and my accomplice uncle used to practice angling in rain....don't ask how...he taught me this little pretend game...as it would pour heavily i would go in to the kitchen and steal(that was my job..)and he would fix...to a stick a twine...one end of which had a safety pin borrowed from the lovely neck of an aunt or my mom(she always had half a dozen of them in her chain on her lovely swan like neck)...pin a pea nut or a chana dal ..drop this in to the heavy rain..sitting across a window grill and waiting for it to soak..in rain...and there after about an hour later we used to eat the soaked grain....perhaps we picked it up from the fishermen in the neighbourhood....

Rains to me also meant learning to make a boat....which i can still do..tho i forgot how to make a katti boat (boat with a knife)..my uncle could do it..effortlessly...this was also the time when we siblings learnt to make so many things from plain paper form boats to ink bottles...

Monsoons.....then and now always beckon me..for a thrilling experience....heavy rain slashing....wet clothes...drpping..almost dripping us bare....the umbrella that threatens to take of like a hot air balloon...i still take a walk....in the rain....of course i would love to have the company of m y better half...who is equally fond of rain.....and the MONSOONS