Walking in the Rain...

Close your eyes, and imagine a heavy downpour...
What do you see ?

Puddles, overflowing drains, soiled clothes, entangled umbrellas, autowallahs refusing to go your way, stuck indoors with nowhere to go...???

All that, yes...but lots more too !!!

Freshness in the air...a light chill to the breeze...nature all cleaned up...lush greenery all around...kids in colourful raincoats...paper boats...the sounds of raindrops on the window panes...football...

The weather for garam garam pakodas, bhuttas, hot steaming chai/coffee, just sitting in the balcony, following the strangest patterns formed by the flowing rivulets...

Its not supposed to be raining here in Chennai, not at this time of the year.
So I was caught without an umbrella, in a heavy shower. Waited for sometime, but when it didn't show any signs of letting up, I said to myself...what the heck !! Lemme just indulge myself.

So, I just left my office building and started to walk home.
I was drenched before I reached the main gate, it was so coming down in buckets...
But it was B-E-A-U-tiful...I could feel the tension drain out of me...I felt cleansed...I felt refreshed...

Reminded me of the time on Juhu Beach...
Now Bombay weather is something else !!! The rains there are meant to be gotten drenched in. It can have no other purpose. Just go out there and soak it in.
I remember how we used to borrow a friend's bike and just roam, randomly on the streets, with not a care in the world.
But the Beach !!! That is a totally different visual treat !!!
The raving sea, the bhutta wallahs, the chai tapris, the seeng daana stalls, paratha wallahs, pakoda wallahs...
The couples huddled together in one umbrella, the more impassioned ones not bothering about it at all, ensconced in their togetherness, oblivious to the world around them.

And to get that same heavenly feel in this city here, was a treat. Almost as if the city was entreating you to like it, by offering you everything that you might be missing, longing for…
And thus I reached home.

Yes, I had to peel off my wet clothes off me...
Yes, I had to really scrub myself dry...
Yes, my feet had that peculiar odour...
Yes, my leather shoes were ruined...
Yes, a few currency notes in my wallet had gotten soiled...
Yes, my watch and mobile had been cause for worry all along...

But, as I sat huddled on my bed, wrapped in a blanket, with a mug of hot drinking chocolate radiating warmth, listening to the rhythm of the falling rain, it was immediately all worth it.