Memories of monsoon rain…

making my way home in the falling rain; armed with an umbrella, was a perfect end to a perfect day… the soothing pitter patter of raindrops and the ambient smell of fresh earth never fails to trigger a cascade of memories…

Back to a childhood afternoon, again the smell of fresh earth was in the air and the whole yard was dotted with water puddles… Kaaka was finishing up planting trees…I wanted to be out before he started sprinkling salt on the snails, something my cousins and I loved doing… its funny, how they shrivel up! But we weren’t allowed to go out till the puddles dried… and that’s where ‘makaana’s’ come in… they are long eekels bent at the tip to appear as a ‘z’; they are placed in the middle of the puddles so they can drink the water!! (Ya right! now we know better, the water simply evaporates! Duh!) maama makes sure we don’t get too restless waiting, and humor us with engaging stories…

Remember how it was in male’, when the roads weren’t paved? As usual it was an impossible feat to get a taxi early in the morning. There I was perched up, high and dry on daddy’s bicycle while he walked in the water, with his trousers rolled up while trying to keep the bike steady as he navigated through the bumps n ridges on the road (all covered with water, so you don’t really see where you are going). I looked over my shoulder to wave goodbye to mommy, I know she’d be standing near the gate until she saw us turn at the corner… no matter what; they’d always make sure I am in school in time for classes…

And then there are the draughty evenings (few and far between), when its too rainy to go out… mom would cook a pot of soup, which we’d enjoy along with anecdotes from mommy’s n daddy’s childhood… and when its finally time for bed, dhontha and I insist in sleeping in the same room, cause we had so many things to talk about, which just can’t wait till morning!! Of course it wasn’t cause we were afraid of ear splitting thunder n lightening, nor was it cause we were scared of hearing branches scrape the roof or water apples fall!!!

How could I forget those rainy afternoons during holidays, when thiththa, thiththibe, niyabe and nistharbe were in male’? We always found ways of amusing ourselves… something was always cooking, be it milk toffees or plans for a prank!

Sigh… its that time of the year again… even though we are scattered far away, memories of those long ago days keep us warm…