Monsoon is here. The gushing wind trickles
the trees and they sway with perfection in an attempt to escape the fierce yet
gentle brush of the wind. The grey
clouds gather around the bright morning sun to guard it from the boisterous little
drops which will soon arrive to quench the thirst of the barren land. And when
they arrive, they are like tiny pearls which go and fall on the dry and hungry
land and form a pretty necklace of green and glee. These little pearls also
graze against our glass windows. The slimy green frogs and the crawly
earthworms embrace the little drops of water like a blessing and a gift from
the sky above. The atmosphere is dark,
but each drop brings with it a fragment of hope.
That
essentially summarizes what monsoon is in the poetic sense. But it isn’t what
an Indian monsoon is all about.
Monsoon for
us is a time for our cherished rain dance, and not for getting our old
umbrellas out. We get inspired by our iconic Bollywood songs, be it Chak
dhoom dhoom chak or ek ladki bheegi bhaagi si, each song and each
star is remembered in times like these. We love to jump into the dirty puddles
for they splash happiness on our faces. The little paper boats float in almost
each little ‘stream’ which forms in monsoons. An Indian monsoon is incomplete
without a plate of pakodas. The crunchy little pakodas are like a
blessing in the rainy season. Onion, paneer, mirchi, aloo, bread,
each and every item available at home is dipped in the pale yellow besan
and fried to perfection in loads of tel and love. Maggie is another saathi
for the monsoon. Sitting with a bowl of piping hot Maggie and a cup of chai or
coffee, looking out of the window at the lovely raindrops sounds like the
perfect monsoon. Cozying up in bed with your favourite book, or sitting on the
couch all day with your favourite video game or movie is also amazing. An
Indian monsoon is unique and there is perhaps no country where monsoon is as
exciting as it is here. We don’t have
monsoon in India, we have only baarish.
