October is not really the time to write about rains but what shall I say, the weather gods have been very whimsical of late and have sent the predicted seasons for a toss. I have grown up with my birthday almost always coinciding with a rainy day (it happens to be July 10) - and perhaps that's the reason why I love rains so much. From the gentle pitter-patter to the lashing showers and rumbling, grumbling thunder, the scent of the wet earth after the first shower, the spray covering the face when droplets rush in through the open window of a moving car, the sting of water that splashes with the rain lashes into a swimming pool, and gettting drenched to the skin when caught without an umbrella in a heavy shower - I love everything about rains. In school in Calcutta there used to be days that were declared "rainy days". These were days when the entire city would come to a stand-still because of heavy showers and we'd get a holiday just like that, out of the blue. However, my excitement of the "rainy day" was not due to the fact that it was a holiday, rather it was from the calls that my parents would make to the school to find out if school was open and if they should send their child to school. I would wait in front of my mother with wide eyes eagerly waiting to know the answer but as always the phone would go unanswered. Mom and Baiya (that's what I call my father) would debate if I should go and of all days on such days I would be more than willing to trek or rather wade to school. Seeing my excitement they would give in and the car would be taken out for me to be driven to school. I'd arrive at the gate late but with absolute confidence that I am one of the few who have braved the weather to attend school and this would mean a lot more exciting things: 1) It would mean that classes would be dissolved as perhaps teachers were also absent 2) It would be declared a "rainy day" which meant it was a holiday (there was a different pleasure in going to school and then discovering it's off rather than knowing it from before).
3) Since my best friend's house was just across the school, such a sudden holiday meant that I would spend the time with her till someone came from home to pick me; and given the state of the city on such a day no one would arrive anytime soon. So the day would be an amazing day.
On holidays when it would rain, what i would like doing the best is curling up in my bed with a book and my cook would humour my mood with hot chocolate, piping hot pakodas, and delicious tea cakes.
Alas! such days are luxuries now but still once in a blue moon if I do get a chance to enjoy a holiday which is a rainy day I still love spending the day reading a book over a cup of Darjeeling tea. Sometimes I add another passion to this day. I treat myself to a nice at-home manicure - a scrub, a little buffing and a quick massage. What more can one want.
