It Rained Memory Today..

Lightning dances in the Doha sky, to the music of thunder. The cloudy, sleepy weather reminds me of the monsoons back in India. The heavy rains, skies laden with dark clouds ready to spill over, the lightening, thunder. Even noon felt like dusk as sun was totally hidden.

Rains always brought piping hot food to the table. Hot coffee/tea with pakodas, pappads, when it rained and we were forced to stay indoors. Lunch and dinner served with hot and spicy rasam. Rain and huruli saaru(horse gram rasam) was a deadly combination in our house. Also, pressure cooked ground nuts, lightly flavored with salt. Rain always gave us extra space in the stomach.

Monsoons and the academic year in the school began together. So, early days of schools was like an extension of vacation as whenever clouds shrouded, it would be so dark that it was impossible to see the board or the teacher. A holiday would be announced. We happily went home jumping in the puddles. We would be drenched by the water sprayed by the vehicles that passed by, but we didn’t mind much. The worst part was to handle the umbrella. When the wind blew hard the umbrella got inverted almost dragging us along with it.

Power cuts were the highlight of the monsoon season. The moment a lightning lit the sky, power would be cut and the whole town drenched in darkness and rain. We used to sit in the verandah and watch the lightning show and wait for the ear-deafening thunder to follow. My grandmother threw an iron sickle out into the yard saying it will draw the lightning to itself if it strikes too close to the house.

We loved  candle lights and the kerosene lamps, making shadow figures on the wall or watching our shadows grow big or small as we moved around. The fondest memory of these times was during such long power cuts , the whole family gathered in one room and each of us, kids, were given a topic to speak. Also, we could sing, dance or play a skit but no sitting idle. It brought out our creativity and kept us entertained and kept us away from pranks in the dark.

We enjoyed rains in every possible way we could, as kids. As I peep out the window to check on the weather that inspired this blog, the sun is out and so are kids, happy they are not cooped up inside because of rains.