After the rain...

Beautifully crafted umbrella with lacy border and pretty, cheerful flowers as the backdrop…one glance at it and I start missing monsoons. I couldn’t help buying it (and also the fact that my face has become ten shades darker than my body due to tanning). So, what’s with the dehradun monsoons? I have a love-and-hate relationship with them. And why not, when there’s daunting, bloodcurdling thunderstorms throughout the night, upturned umbrellas due to intense downpour, thick dirt splattered all over my clean jeans, getting stranded for hours in the middle of the journey and finally, broken sandals v/s umpteen cups of coffee at god-knows-what hours, frequent runs to the nearby samosa vendors, scenic splendor to the sore eyes, enthralling greenery at the backyard and needless to say, intoxicating monsoon fragrance wafting from the soil….

It surprises me how the basic elements of life: earth, water, air and fire can create the most spectacular natural wonders!!! No wonder we all have forgotten to lay back and enjoy all this as relaxation and rejuvenation seem to have become forbidden these days… There are umpteen times when I feel terribly homesick at dehradun but certain things always recompense the pain I go through:  clouds afloat so low that you can actually touch them, many mesmerizing rainbows in a row, vintage houses build on the distant hill tops, bike rides along the twisting contours of Mussoorie amidst the hushing trees and whistling winds, walking barefoot in the cool, gushing , crystalline river streams with my feet touching the cold, hard bed of rocks with an empty cola bottle in my hand, trying to catch the school of tiny , psychedelic-colored fish swimming past my feet, Little, cherubic kids with rosy cheeks and stout nose, perhaps from the villages straddling the hills, giggling at me ( and sometimes just for fun, hurling stones at me , :)  ) .

 No wonder that I suffer from serious adrenaline rush in monsoons as I feel utterly dreamy and romantic and wholly depressed to have nobody around to coo with. So, sometimes, I end up getting cosy inside my house, drinking countless cups of tea and watching random sitcoms or doing other random things on my laptop. My laptop, ah….it has literally become my only confidante these days and I get mind-numbingly anxious that I will end up marrying it one day. 

Countless times, these monsoons have spilled beans on my plans. Just the very moment I step out of my house to go out somewhere, clouds spew volumes of water on me. It is somehow similar to what you experience during the festival of Holi: kids from floors above throwing bucketfuls of water on you and shouting “Holi Hai!!!” in unison, only that it is worse when you are nicely dressed and ready to go out.  Even those huge umbrellas, big enough to give shelter to the entire DEAL colony, don’t do justice to the drenched souls during those days. So, in the next onset of monsoons, I am going to make a quick visit to the local shop and buy a raincoat (with ducks on them, to add more to fun) .

Nevertheless, monsoons at Dehradun also bring along their very own herd of natural terrors since Dehradun is an endless boulevard of natural diversity and home of myriad species of insects, reptiles etc. Just a few days back, I witnessed long, silvery snakes (alias nagaraaj) gyrating, just outside my office building, two days in a row. It was a long-awaited realization of my dream ever since I laid my foot on Dehradun and no, I don’t aspire for such things anymore!!! Another day, a big, fat pompous spider crept through my bedroom window and only I know how I ran for my life and straight into my mother’s outstretched arms!!! 

Now that monsoons have finally bid adieu to us and winters are almost impending, I am missing all the fun I used to have in the pretext of torrential downpour :( . Hehehe...., I have actually downloaded some sound clips of thunderstorms and rainfalls to soothe my heart-wrenched soul. Boohoohoo,, And I have only one thing left to say:

“Don’t be afraid to lose what was never meant to be

After the rain washes away the tears

And all the pain

Only after the rain

Can you live again…”-

After The Rain

Matthew & Gunnar Nelson / Marc Tanner / Rick Wilson