Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain

It’s raining!

Yippee it’s raining. I am prancing about, jumping with joy. Because it is raining.

I could keep repeating this sentence for the whole of today and still not tire of it. It’s raining! Whoop!

I love the rain. I never did for a long time in the past, but now I do. I love the rain. In Chennai, that too. For the uninitiated let me explain the previous sentence.

When, if you look outside your window and see a large body of muddy water creeping up to the doorway of your house, bringing with it debris of all kinds – half eaten, faded film posters, twigs and leaves, excreta, sewage and insects then you’d agree that it is not at all nice when it rains in Chennai.

When all you can see through the haze of the rain is a cluster of grimy buildings, painted in garish yellow or 'jaal' (eye-blinding) pink years ago, instead of lush greenery, then yes, it is Chennai we are talking of.

If you are one of those unfortunates who is stranded mid-way from any decent destination and all you can witness of the rains is traffic jams, smoke, din and people jostling with you, then yes you are in Chennai.

And if during the first few days of rain, you jump with joy like me and then start whining about all or any of the above unmentionables, from the third day of rain, then yes it is raining in Chennai. Oh it is so easy to hate rains. 

But I have a love-hate relationship with rains.

I love it when the first drops of rain fall on our parched soil and with it bringing a light chill that permeates every nook and corner of my house, making everything cool to touch. Everything feels luxurious and soft. Even the coarse cotton bed sheets which we snuggle into at night.  

I love standing in the balcony of our sixth floor apartment and watch the way the world around me soaks in the silver elixir. There are only concrete structures until as far as the eye can see, but those small patches of green in between shine after the wash they get from Nature's hands.

I love the feeling rains induce in me. To want to listen to Ilayaraja’s songs, any song of his or any old Hindi number for that matter, to write poetry, to reminisce of other rainy days, to think of songs that best represent the magic of rains, to do something creative, to eat hot bajjis and samosas, to curl up on my sofa with a nice book, to drink hot tea or coffee from pretty mugs…oh the list could go on.  

But all this is just a feeling. I never seem to follow up on it. I don’t make hot bajjis or samosas as I am either lazy or feel guilty, I don’t curl up on the sofa with a book because I am either blogging or think of blogging about the rains or I am checking other people’s blogs on rains, I don’t make so many cups of coffees or teas as I can only stomach two cups a day maximum.  And I don’t simply stand and watch the rain because I immediately feel the need to take a snap; which of course never works as I either run out of batteries or I would need to charge the batteries or I simply feel disinclined to move because I am watching the rain.

Don’t roll your eyes just yet. I seem to have a problem that plagues many other people.  Try to do many things at a time and so, do none at all. However as you can see, I have bypassed all temptations and distractions to pen this blog. And that's because it is raining.

What do you know? A love hate relationship can do just that.