Monsoon musings

Rain can hold an entire city hostage, but for countryside, it brings a festive feel

Commercialism has its own little charm. While driving during a monsoon evening, I was jolted by the tagline 'Monsoon Dhamaka'; an advertisement on a billboard showing the sale of washing machines with an insane discount. A little ahead, a telecom company advertised its exclusive talk-time as 'Monsoon Bonanza' to its privileged customers.

For city-dwellers, monsoon is associated with filth coming out of the drain, diseases like cholera, typhoid or dangerous dengue. For most, the monsoon season is when traffic jams occur due to waterlogging, irritable insects such as mosquitoes and flies breed and plaster peels off from walls. This is when biscuits and namkeens lose their taste and crispness. The season of monsoon gives enough nightmares to the government agencies like municipal corporations, traffic police departments, electricity departments, PWD etc for timely restoration of the ever-crumbling public infrastructure.

While rain holds an entire city in its grip, in the countryside, monsoon is just like the arrival of a new festival. With the onset of the first rain, watermelon and mangoes give their way to jamuns (blackberries) and bhutta (corn-cob). Rain-kissed jamuns are believed to be the tastiest. And what can beat the taste of corn gently heated over embers, rubbed with salt and fresh lemon?

The rainy season brings its own festival such as teej associated with swings, popularly known as saawan-swings. It is the time to send gifts to sisters during the Rakshabandhan, an everlasting bond for brother-sister. Janmashtami is yet another day to celebrate.

As a child, listening to Door Darshan and DD News, the entire family eagerly awaited the rain forecast, including the date of monsoon hitting the Kerala coast, which is considered the onset of monsoon in the Indian subcontinent.

With the onset of the first rain, it is the onset of the season of sowing paddy. As farmers plough through muddy water to set up the farm for sowing fresh paddy, white birds park themselves in the water-filled field to feast on the insects. The womenfolk singing while at work is a sight straight from a picture postcard. The children splash water everywhere while adults are busy measuring rainfall in their own rustic way.

Monsoon is a time when purple clouds bring joy, the sound of music is everywhere while the gentle rainy breezes bring earthy perfumes and soothe the hearts.