Rains.....it brings back lovely memories from childhood. Rains also meant a new semester at the school. Rains in Mumbai are called the Monsoon. It lasts for about 3 months. A new semester meant a new raincoat, a new uniform and a new school bag. It also meant new friends, new teachers.....and great fun ahead. Childhood memories of rains are very sweet. Hot milk to drink, warm blankets and moist smell in the clothes.
And then I grew up. Started working. The sweet rains from childhood gradually became a torture. The magic disappeared. To get up in the morning while it was still raining and leave for work was hateful. It still is.
My beautiful Mumbai collapses under the rains now. Monsoon means disruptions, tension, muck all over the city....harassed auto rickshaw drivers, honking, pollution...the saga goes on for 3 months.
Despite all this, the optimist in me finds rains an amazing miracle! How else can you explain this tons of water falling from heavens, defying gravity....breaking into tiny droplets. Have you ever tried pouring a few metric tons of water from a height of about 40-50 thousand feet? Everything under it will get crushed by the shear weight of water. But check out the rain drops...they feel so light on our body. Isn't it a miracle? It falls so effortlessly, so gently, so chill and pure. No harm, no damage to human beings, animals or trees. My husband tells me there is a scientific explanation to it all....well there it..but it still does not answer my question....
Have you ever thought about the thousands of liters of water which evaporates into thin air and becomes rain clouds. How do these clouds hold the water? why doesn't the water leak from the clouds and spill over. Imagine a shapeless, container less cloud holding tons of water!! Try holding a few liters without a container! You can't.
Imagine life without water. Imagine life without rains. And we say where is god? God is in this miracle called rains. Year after year; season after seasons; centuries after centuries....it has been raining.
So I tell myself....forget the muck, forget the traffic jam, forget the over flowing drains....forget everything and enjoy this miracle called ....."the rains".
