Kiss the rain

Today, at an idle moment at work, I got a sudden feel of a rainy day in madras.. dusty cobwebs hung for dear life to the memory( not like it was so damn far away, but it sure felt like it) and I simply had to dust em away

The song kiss the rain holds special significance to me.. only coz it was the first song Tazz recommended and I loved it coz i always associated it with him (loved it otherwise too) and I listened to it during the time you-know-what happened.. also formed a background for many a rainy day during a particular Madras November monsoon.

Anyway coming back to what this post is really about..

The image of madras when it rains is colorfully etched in my mind.. its not just visual, it is, in totality, a whole lot of other things which reflect some of the happy(although, I didn't realise then) moments of my life. Today all of these flashed through my mind with much nostalgia and wistfulness.. and for the first time since I came here, I missed Madras more than ever before..

The gradual graying of the skies before the heavens burst open, the intoxicatingly damp smell of the earth as the first raindrops hit the dusty earth, the overpowering laziness of not wanting to go to school or college, listening to the sound of hard hitting rain on the asbestos roof above my courtyard, wearing rubber chappals(yes, the ugly ones you wear to the bathroom) to school/college coz ur feet are gonna get wet anyway, experiencing a small joy at not wearing socks n shoes to school that day, the slushy dirty road I had to walk thru to get to my bus for college, total annoyance at dirt being splashed on the back of my jeans, wide slimy slushy streets, the view of anna nagar roads flooded with water and people wading thru them, the empty-ness of the classroon a rainy day, the row of umbrellas i used to see lined up outside class, getting my feet soaked in water puddles while walking from my classroom to where the bus is parked , avoiding all wet surface in the college canteen, wearing baggy clothes to college coz it gets colder when it rains, the sound of the rain splattering on my window, wearing socks to bed when it gets too cold at night, listening to loud croaking (really loud) of frogs ringing thru the night before i fall asleep, the absolute reluctance to get out of bed in the morning, getting slightly drenched while walking back home after the bus drops me, the touch of the wet door gate before i get in, the neem tree just outside my house which pelts me with raindrops every time it sways, how all the plants look in my garden just after it rains, untidy piles of garbage gently rotting in the rain, the very many puddles i strove to not get my feet into, the freshly scrubbed green leaves on the trees after it rains, the view from my kitchen window being a blur of green, brown and grey when I go for an afternoon snack, being pleasantly woken up to know that theres a holiday coz of the heavy rains expected, general lethargy when it rains, hurrying(forcibly by mom) upstairs to get the clothes off the terrace before it gets wet and getting slightly rained on in the process, pretending to be revathy n do that film song in the rain dance, walking barefoot on the ground when it rains, hearing the drains outside go drip-drip-drip after when it rains, reading when it rains, hot bajjis when it rains, watching that funny mohanlal movie when it rains, a power cut when it rains, hearing a transformer burst in a distance when it rains, being under an umbrella when it rains, being under a blanket when it rains, sleeping when it rains, dreaming when it rains..

This is a nutshell is what I love about rainy days in madras.