And the rain came down...

Some wise man once said...Nature, like man, sometimes weeps from gladness.
I just love the rains.
Flirty monsoon gusts, car wipers that slide almost rhythmically, writing against the fine mist collected on the windshield, kids in gum boots going splitter splatter, bright umbrellas, rolled up jeans, paper boats in puddles, the sound of rain on rooftops, funky PVC bags, steaming momos and piping hot lemon tea.
All this, provided the heavens open out when I’m snug and safe within the four walls of my house. I can sit by the window with some hot chocolate and look out endlessly.
Have I told you how much I hate being trapped out in the rain?
Clouded skies, toxic drops of acid rain, flooding ditches and gutters, vehicles that spray water at your face, monsoon traffic jams, frizzy hair, dampness, wet clothes, seepage in buildings, umbrellas blown inside out, power cuts, thunder and lightning...God, I hate the rains!
But what I do love is the “after rain” effects...sunshine after the rain, the breeze that carries the smell of wet mud, desolate rain kissed streets, clear skies, beaming rainbows and hope.
I’m gonna bury myself in my cubby hole, book, quit et al. I hope it rains for a really long time.
For me,for the farmers,for everyone.

Dog Days(All puns intended!)

Have I told you about the time Andy thought he was dying of rabies?
Andy and I worked together in our first company and barely knew each other, coincidentally we quit around the same time. On our last day, once we got done with the swan songs with no office politics to be a part of anymore Andy graciously offered me a ride back home.
Enroute, to our astonishment we discovered that we were both joining the same company in a few days!
Our employer, then a start up in India was the perfect breeding ground for everything but work with an unfledged set up and no supervision… and that’s when I got to know Andy better.
He’d almost have you believe he was twice his age. He strolled into office every morning with crisp clothes, wearing a staid expression and a blue Tupperware bag which I slobbered over relentlessly.
Andy’s mom is one helluva cook. He would let me have morsels that I could count on the fingers of one hand with enormous difficulty. So, like all good things in the world even those few delightful bites also came at a price.
Andy cant spell.
Not even with spell check, he spells words in ways that don’t even come close to how they are meant to be spelt.
I become Andy’s typist. He rewards me handsomely, in his miserly own way with a few morsels of food and the entire lunch box on Thursdays, that’s the perk!
You see, Thursday is the day Annie cleanses his system.
Unbelievable but true, he actually lives on fruit and fruit juices on Thursdays and that by far was the highlight of my working week. Thank god for Thursdays!
Andy is quite a paradox, self-confidence his forte and paranoia his strength.
Apart from catalyzing my hunger pangs, Andy also loves playing with his roadside doggy “Itchy”.
One mundane evening Andy returns from office to finds out about Itchy’s sudden death.
Andy is brooding over his loss, and trying to collect every last memory of his beloved Itchy and to his horror he realizes that Itchy had given him a big warm lick on an open wound the previous day.
That was their very last “special” memory and that’s when the trouble began.
He spent the next few hours running around his neighborhood investigating Itchy’s death.
It didn’t take too much to convince Andy that Itchy died of rabies.
He looked up the symptoms online for rabies and he realized he possessed all the early symptoms such as nausea, fever and head ache.
Early the next morning the quest for the best rabies specialist begins.
Despite having taken his rabies vaccines as a child, he left his days were numbered.
Four different doctors and four prescriptions later nothing had changed.
To worsen matters, he found himself with the symptoms of the next stages of rabies being diarrhea, severe headaches, fever and extreme shivering.
Andy was born with a beauraucratic spoon is his mouth. With his corrupt contacts Andy got himself an appointment with the President of the Rabies Foundation (Which I now know exists!).
Andy by now was given anti-anxiety pills by his fifth doctor (without exaggeration, really!). The pills were recommended for 4-5 days but Andy was on the pills for two weeks. It gave him a lot of solace.
He slept at work,slept at home and when he was awake he prayed ferverently to the gods for the most peaceful death possible under the circumstances.
The next few days were spent avoiding puddles, dogs, baths and waiting for that moment when he would actually be taken over by hydrophobia and would not be able to even look at water!
“Why, oh god would you want to subject me to this kind of a death even if I have to die..!”.This was the only thought playing on his head all day long.
And before he knew it two months were up and well, rabies hadn’t arrived yet.
He had passed all the tests and was well past the rabies mark.
Andy didn’t have rabies, after all.
He however has gathered enough knowledge on the subject to consider a career in it.
He does not socialize with dogs anymore and has turned vegetarian.
Andy and I don’t work in the same office anymore and despite him napping and malingering in office for the two weeks on anxiety pills, he has been promoted to Manager.
Andy still can’t spell but he now manages to use spell check without too much difficulty.
And, this is the story of how lives change.

The reunion of the sisterhood

Four pairs of feet that dragged in all that dirt...all puns intended.
Fifteen years of friendship.
When we were younger, we were a bigger group; few of us survived transitions between address books and growing up. As we stood there reunited at the airport, hugging, squealing and inspecting each other to see who had changed, I felt like we were still the giggly trio we used to be. Nothing had changed.
With us distance has never been much of a problem. We might not talk every day, but when we did, it more than made up for the times we didn’t.
Diya and I have spent time together at every possible opportunity but Pinkster was visiting after a decade
Like they say, the most defining moments in your life are never planned; this one just went by unplanned despite my obsessive rehearsing. When we met, we just broke into laughter and said to each other in a chorus” You’re just the same”! That was it.
Took me back to the time when I first met Pinkster.
Under the misconception that character profiling was my forte, I instantly decided she was not my type.
Adorable kid, everyone’s favorite and I was always mistaken for a little boy!(Thank you for the fantastic styling mom).She was always prinked up in the prettiest clothes and had so many dolls while I sported the shortest hair and played cricket with the boys. Clearly, I saw no scope for friendship with Barbie.
Fate dragged us together!
We were family friends, our mothers dragged us to the same kitty parties, our brothers were in the same class and played with each other all the time, we went to the same school and somewhere along the line Pinkster and I became friends. Next thing you know Barbie doll is climbing mountains, walls and trees with me and I was playing with dolls, learning to dance and trying to grow my hair!
Soon we became inseparables. I’d wished for a sister all my life but I never imagined we would be soul mates (Except for the time I fell into a stream and she burst out laughing instead of trying to save me!)
When her family moved, I never imagined quite imagined we’d remain best friends for life.
We’ve lasted all these years, shared our worlds and so much more.
The trip somehow made up for all the years we hadn’t been together.
We strolled down memory lane and animatedly dragged each other down amnesia lane to remind us of our not so favorite moments too!
Sluggish Sunday afternoons with lemonade and letting lethargy expands our horizon,
Many grimy hands in one lunch box, puppy fat and nonage pimples,
Swings that took us to the sky, exams that brought us crashing down to reality,
Secret caves, unexplored territories and taboo questions,
Phone conversations in “P” Language, personal journals and secret crushes,
Calling of spirits and the prediction of board grades,
Hangouts, gangs and friendship bands,
Truth or dare, frizzy hair and school fairs,
Punishments, homework and constant states of penury,
The nuns and the nones.
And my talent for remembering absolutely insignificant facts (Still my trademark!)
So that’s what we did for one whole week, reminiscing and reliving every old memory and gossip on who-is-upto-what. Talking late into the night, in different hotel rooms every night.
We made a pact to take this holiday every few years, hopefully with our respective families.
After this trip I’m convinced that nothing can ever come between us. That’s the thing about people you grow up with; no matter how different our lives might end up being we’ll always share that special bond.
One week went by in a jiffy...after a million pictures (imposed on everyone by me), breathtaking views, unexpected rains and unforgettable (most appropriately, for those of you who know!) memories we bid farewell to Himachal.
I returned home with heavy heart, (not to mention the backlog at work) you know how much I despise goodbyes.
Anyways, the good news is that there’ll always be something more to look forward to and more memories that'll last a lifetime.