The rains came!

Oh yes! It finally did happen. It rained. As a matter of fact, it is still raining and has been doing so since the late afternoon of Wednesday, i.e. 09.09.09. My class with the kids of Delhi School of Communication, scheduled for today from 8.30am , got duly postponed.

This kind of continuous rain is not very common in Delhi, although I must admit, it is not very strange either. The current weather is very reminiscent of Kolkata at its monsoon worst. I realise that there will be a large number of people who will be dismayed by my use of the word "worst". After all, isn't the monsoon the inspiration behind great prose, poetry and song? Isn't Tagore held in extreme reverence, by the cognoscenti, for his soul-uplifting compositions on the monsoons? Undeniably true. However, the fact remains that, though I genuinely admire and love Tagore's works, I do hate the monsoons! To me there is no romance in the drift of the dark clouds or music in the patter of raindrops (except in Jose Feliciano's unforfettable refrain). I do not get turned on by the "rhythm of drumbeats" that thunder claps are supposed to represent. To me monsoons are messy. Mud and slush abound. Roads are flooded. Shoes and trousers get wet. The body gets drenched. At times, even the umbrellas get upturned!!! Above all, there is no getting away from the all-pervading musty smell of poorly dried clothes. And worse, the neighbourhood press wala does not turn up to provide the little crispness that one craves for in an otherwise damp world! Thank you but no thank you. I can do without the monsoons. Only thing, in actual fact I really cannot, can I? Life's damp squib! One is stuck with it! DAMN!