Boond Boond Tapak Rahi Hai Kaynaat Saari ...

Poetic as it may sound in Hindi, it would translate roughly as 'the cosmos is dripping away in tiny droplets'. But today its no tiny droplets, its more like a sheet of water pouring down. And as always, rain does one of the two things to me - it either makes me all excited and happy OR it makes me melancholy and thoughtful. Today is a strange mix of the two. So here's the jumble of thoughts in my head ...

• I started by thinking about the time when I really used to love rains. This one time we were at college and it started raining heavily, B and I were so excited, we just wanted to get soaked.We decided to go to B's place instead of mine, the decision was easy as her place was about 7 Kms. while mine a mere 1-1.5 km. So we stepped out and looked for a rickshaw ... aah, not an auto rickshaw, THE rickshaw which is pulled by the rickshaw guy. So we climbed and started for her place, the rickshaw guy tried to put up those tiny umbrella-like shades they have and we were like ... NO!! We don't want it. And there we went ... a good half an hour (or more?) of a rickshaw ride - singing and talking and laughing in the rain. Some vehicles passing us by looked at us as if we had grown goblin heads or something, and some ... they looked at us and just smiled or even laughed and waved at us. I'm sure they were all wondering why they couldn't do that :) But it was on hell of a ride ... at the end of it i had this feeling, its one i don't get too often, the feeling that I have been soaked to the soul. I like that feeling, its something else :)
• And talking about rain, i have to talk about this one time when I was visiting S and he had some work at Marine Drive and i tagged along ... later we were walking by and we could see that it was raining at Malabar hills and then it started moving towards us, so we were like ... there it comes! And it slowly moved over the ocean and in some time it was drenching us! I remember feeling exhilarated :)
• My favorite rain song (song featuring something about rain) is 'choti si kahani se, baarishon ke paani se'. And have you ever noticed that music affects you much more when its raining?
• Sigh ... I still love them when I am out of this city. The things I love about it? The smell after the first rain (there's a word for it 'saundhi', i like the word as it has the right amount of earthiness to describe this smell), the fresh green leaves,overcast skies, sitting in a window watching it pitterpat, water running down the windows of my home or the car, the way lights look through that water running on the window, the usual coffee and pakodas which are just the thing with a good book for such a day and yes ... the long drives at night on washed roads lined with trees which shine with the yellow street lights. I love the way it gets me excited and i love the way it gets me all thoughtful. But the drive on rain-slick roads with the music of my choice ... that's my fav. I'm a romantic! Never claimed otherwise:)
• I used to be outraged when S would say over our infinite long-distance calls ... it sucks, its been raining; and i would go ... What!! You don't like rains?!! And then I moved here and realised that rains ALSO mean mucky roads, muckier sidewalks (where they exist), endless jams, local train compartments with closed doors AND an impossible number of sweaty people inside, flooding, walking through mucky water. Muck just features too often and too much.
• It makes me feel guilty. Sitting all snug and seeing people ... children, old people, just people ... standing with the depressed look on their faces, trying to stay out of the rain. I just feel like i don't know what have i done to deserve better. I don't see it.

I feel like that and still ... it starts to rain and there, I'm back to the excited/thoughtful/both place! It just highlights and amplifies every mood and emotion; I think that's its magic, no denying that :)

P.S. This is a really long post! [I've reduced the font size to make it look smaller than it is :)]