When It Rains!!!!

I open my arms far and wide to hold the whole wide sky,
I open my heart to the tiny droplets that refresh my skin so dry,
I jump like a grasshopper forgetting all sense of social belonging,
I let my heart behold the moment in a sense of total fleeing.
---Yours Truly

Ever wondered why rain evokes so many emotions in us. Rain describes joy and happiness for some, it also describes pain and grief for some, for some it is just another time to relax and chill out, for some it is a callous fact of nature that destroys their lives.

My personal emotions with rain have been diverse through the various stages in my life.There have been times when I jump in joy seeing rain, but there have been other times when I would pray for it to stop. There have been times when the need for rain becomes so imperative that one resorts to steps like black magic and prayers. Wonder what God thinks of all those things I did as a child :-).

The first thing that come to my mind when I think about rain has to be pakodas(mmmmm). Imagine sitting on a chair in the balcony, chating with my sister with rain lashing down outside and you have that lip-smaking pakodas made by mom with all that love assorted in it! Heaven. Heaven is right here on earth. The next will have to be the times I have been at my native place Mavelikara during the monsoon season. Kerala has this dreamlike mystery about it that has a haunting effect on us long after you leave the place.

Lush green fields, vivacious rain forests and enchanting sounds; it truly is God’s Own Country.Rain brings out the best of the place because it is then that the human activity stops and nature takes full control. For many it is like witnessing nature in it full fury; every lightning takes your breath away for it feels like you are at the end of the world; for others its a time for retrospection and realize what we miss out in our lives in our own ways. Then there is a third kind like me who are not aware why life is so difficult anyways:-). And what do they do? They make paper boats and recreate pirates of the Carribean in Kerala.

I must agree; times have changed. I remember being in brick roof houses, which leak when it rains. Grandmother puts those utensils at various vantage points on the floor so that water does not spread in the house. This I must say was my first real experience with rain water harvesting. I remember eating hot piping kaachil(Potato yam) with coconut chutney during this season…yummy.

Nature has a magical way of filling the world with wonders.