Rains

Rains are here, fellas! Now many of you just absolutely love rains, but I have a love-hate relationship with the season. I hate the chik-chik, I hate having to carry around a raincoat (one more thing to take care of), I hate having to be extra careful while driving; well, that's a long list; but again, can't say that anything beats sitting by the window on a stormy evening, a hot cup of tea in one hand (and bhujiyas nearby), and listening to nature's dance. Seasons are one of those few predictable things in life; you want it or not, remember it or not, when the time comes, they are there to say hello. But life keeps changing, you keep changing, and you end up with a store of memories, united by just a single theme, Rains.

The first memories of rains I have are from my school days. It was when the academic year used to start. I distinctly remember the fresh scent of new books. I was a story lover even then, and you could pretty much treat your language books like story books. That made it more special. This was accompnied by the usual activities like putting covers on new books, deciding how many pages a math notebook should be, and demanding a new compass box from papa. Even today, the cloudy sky invariably brings that scent back.

Then I moved to Kolhapur for Junior college. Spent two years there. The thing you won't forget if you've lived in the city is the constant pouring. It's happening all the time!!. To make matters worse the room had leaks, but the kindness of the landlord and his family more than made that up. I can say I've met few kinder people.

Then I moved to Pune. In rains, Mulashi was our favorite destination. Arranging bikes, fights over who drives with whom, the unending fun, and in the end, coffee at Relax, always! And five guys trying to fit inside one umbrella on their way to canteen!! (The sixth guy pretends to be enjoying the full fury of nature). And let me skip over all the fun of protecting journals, b'day bumps with muddy shoes and plans over which teacher deserves to be the first one to drown in VIT boat club :p (though I really don't want to).

Then came the first workex. I won't forget the first 3/4 months, constant rains, and I had to change two buses to get to the workplace. If you have any experience with PMT travel, you know the kind of pain what I am talking about :). But it was fun nonetheless, I think those first days always make an indelible impression.

And that brings us to this year. Who knows what it would be like? Maybe a year from now I will be writing about this time, maybe not. Becuase though seasons are predictable, life, for better or worse, is not. Happy Pawsala!!

Enjoy!!