Rain Rain go away

It is raining since morning here. Cant do much but admire the nature at its resplendent best. The roads have a washed look. The grass looks emerald green and with that heavenly redolence. The clouds are ominously black and the digital sounds of lightning means its not yet over. So what does it mean for me?

Well, my long weekend is suitably screwed up. In fact can’t put the blame totally on the showers though. Satish was planning to visit and we would have gone to Key West. But long weekends mean obscenely expensive flight tickets. We had already dropped that idea.

I had a back up plan of spending the day on the Miami beach. But with this weather like this, I guess it spells more like B I T C H.

So as the rain drops elongate like elegant pearls just before their languorous fall from the roof top, taking just that brief moment to decide whether to fall or not, I open the blinds and walk down memory lane.

Maybe because I am a Piscean , I take to water very naturally be it swimming or simply walking in the rain.

When I look back , Rains bring back a lot of happy memories from my childhood.

I still remember how we used to walk in the rains wearing tiny raincoats and caps jumping in the puddles of muddy water oblivious to anything. If it rained heavy , the school used to declare a holiday. Our favorite sport then was throwing flat pebbles in the pond and see who managed it to jump on the surface most.

We used to be totally drenched by the time we reached home.

We laughed with delight as mom used to fuss over us rubbing our heads dry and giving us hot ginger tea.

The smell of hot fritters and juicy Jalebis still fill my nostrils. It was an unsaid rule in the house when it rained.

Since we lived in Cantonment area where there was a lot of forest land, we used to find a lot of peacocks behind in our kitchen garden. Our favorite hobby was looking out for their feathers and collecting glow worms in match boxes.

And when the rainbow appeared we shrieked with delight.

I hardly remember ever falling sick.

One of the fondest memory of my earlier career is when once we had a meeting with the bankers. I and the Managing Director were dressed in suits and just as we walked out , it started raining. My MD was normally a very somber guy. But that day suddenly he was a young boy. We removed our shoes and put them in our plastic bags along with the files and walked barefoot from Nariman point to our hotel in Ballard Estate as amused passers by watched us.

We had a warm bath and then scotch with warm water as a precaution.

Yet we both fell ill.

It was an indication that age was catching up. The heart maybe young but the body isn’t.

Today rain is something you just watch from inside.

I remember Charlie Chaplin, that delightful genius who made us laugh till we cried.

Today I only cry when I read what he said , “I always like to walk in the rain as no one can see me crying”.

I can no longer see an actor I just see the man.

Go away rain. Or bring me back my childhood.