Day 96!

Her petite frame stood by the window, the hands outstretched to feel the torrential rains pour down on her palms.
He went and held her by the waist, nestling her back into his arms.
They stood like that for ages it seemed. The chill in the air, peace in her breaths, the sound of the claps followed by her slightest shudders, brought him still closer to her.
He couldn't hold himself back anymore, and took her hand and slipped on the ring.
"Marry me, will you?"
He felt the sharp intake of breath, goosebumps run all over her while the skies lit up in full approval!

And that's Day 96! Well, at least the rains are a part of my day and the proposal hopefully someone's at least! :-)

Day 95!

Rains after almost a month of harsh Sun in Calcutta! That's my view after a short morning spell.

Day 61!

And that is the Calcutta skies in the afternoon! Windy rains!

The Monsoon Drama!

Did you know carrying an umbrella is an art? It’s worthy of being practiced to attain perfection! You don’t believe me, do you?

This monsoon rains have been so infrequent and imbalanced with a vast array of diseases striking the city, that every little drizzle makes you whip out the umbrella! Gone are the days when we used to prance about in the rains and deliberately forget our umbrellas at home!

• For starters, like me, carrying an umbrella atop your head and handling a side bag along with making sure that you don’t land in the puddles or poke someone with you umbrella, is a difficult task! And what if your cell phone starts ringing?!
• If the rains bring along the winds, then you have make sure the umbrella doesn’t fly away, thus removing your attention from the fact that you might be getting wet face-down!
• When I’m walking on the footpath, alongside ether people I have to make sure that my umbrella isn’t too low, or else I might end up poking those without one. And now when I’m holding the umbrella high to avoid causing inconvenience to others, I kind of end up getting wet.
• And Calcutta footpaths, where available, tend to have such constricted spaces, that a lot of times you have to close the umbrella, pass the spot, and the open it again. Defeats the purpose of not getting wet, don’t you think?
• Oh and please do tell me how am I supposed to react when all those people sitting in the bus crib that my umbrella’s dripping water! People, for God’s sake, it’s raining outside. I’m carrying an umbrella. I just got on to the bus somehow. Of course my umbrella’s going to drip water! Unless someone out there has invented a water-absorbent umbrella!

So that’s my story of the recent trysts I had with the umbrella!

Someone bring out those raincoats, please! They also save you from the muddy water flicked across by passing cars!

Innovative!

Every year, West Bengal celebrates a festival called Durga Puja, reminiscing how Maa Durga killed Mahishasura, the demon! Come Pujas and Calcutta is filled with pandals. This morning I came across a piece in The Telegraph showing the innovation and creativity people employ to create pandals. Here it is:

Welcome rain for herb worshipper.

A harvest of herbs to greet pandal hoppers at 64 Palli on Manoharpukur Road Theme-makers across the city may be a worried lot, what with the daily showers jeopardising their preparations for Durga Puja, but Bapai Sen can’t stop grinning. The man from Lake Gardens had made his plans with an eye on the sky. “The more it rains the easier it makes things for me,” he smiles. All the three pandals that he is in charge of have vegetation as their key element. At 64 Palli Puja Parishad, on Manoharpukur Road, he has planted saplings of 80 types of medicinal plants. “All of them — sandalwood, spinach, rudraksha, brahmi, chirota and nayantara — are growing so well in the rain. I am even growing paddy on slices of bamboo poles on the pandal walls,” he says. Once a chain-smoker, he had kicked the butt with help from ayurveda. “Extracts of banana leaf and half a spoon of haritaki worked helped me get rid of my addiction.” He will be advertising the benefits of each of the medicinal plants through attached posters at the pandal. “Did you know Nayantara is good for blood cancer and high blood pressure?” he asks. At a Moore Avenue puja, he is growing ladies’ finger, pumpkin and other vegetables to depict rural Bengal. It is here that the rain is helping him the most. At Chittaranjan Smriti Mandir, near Kadamtala, he has grown a field of paddy. “The iron content in the Howrah water is too high. The rain water is working better,” he says. I hope after reading this, not only will you enjoy looking at the pandals but also appreciate the labour which goes into making the Pujas a success! :)