Rain Rain Come Again... ;)

The summer showers are very strange. Their routine is almost predictable. They prepare for onset by about 4.30 pm, the sky starts to darken with rain laden clouds, thunder starts to rumble and Wham!!! ,it starts to rain. This predictability has an inherent unpredictability (talk about oxymorons!!!). You can never say by the skies how hard the rain is going to fall. Sometimes it might look so stormy you feel like a 'Katrina' is on the way,but it just drizzles on and off for hours and drives you crazy. At other times,the sun might be shining its head off and all of a sudden it starts pouring like hell...the day might still by bright while it rains too. It is those drizzles that are never ending. Once it develops into a full fledged rain,it just keeps at it for an hour at most and recedes. That is my favourite kind,it provides a respite from this annoying heat and doesn't become annoying itself. Can't wait for the monsoon to kick in!!!

We went for a drive in the rain yesterday,to a place called Neriyamangalam,enroute to Munnar,where the high range just starts. It is apparently where my Grandfather grew up,I had never even heard of the place before yesterday..lol ;)

Beyond this stone called the "Rani kallu" after  the Queen Regent on whose orders the stone was laid,marking the building of the road to the high ranges,Its hair pin bends all the way...

As I said I sooo can't wait it to be monsoon ,for this horrendous heat to dissolve into dewy coolness,to see the trees glisten with raindrops,to watch the shoe flower outside my window sway shyly when the rain falls on it... Incidentally I am reading a book called "Chasing the Monsoon" now. It is by an English guy with a weather fetish called Alexander Frater who went chasing the monsoon from Trivandrum to Cherrapunji...What a journey it might have been...and beautifully written too :) :) :)

I want to.....

I want to stand on a cliff top and feel the wind rustle my hair.

 I want to run against the rain while it lashes at my face.

 I want to fall like a feather against gravity, and float weightless in the air.

 I want to sit by the river and listen to its stories.

 I want to swim to the opposite bank and shout out "Yaayee...I did it" when I get there.

I want to rise with the Sun and see the sights no one has ever set their eyes upon.

I want to howl like a wolf when the moon shines down on me.

I want to sleep with the stars singing to me.

I want to walk the paths of beasts, and watch them hunt (hopefully not me).

I want to live the life of flowers and perish at sundown.

I want to drive to the end of the world and just stand there looking at nothing.

I want to be at peace with myself, laugh at myself and just exist...

Perceptions.....Realisations.....

Yesterday,was a lot of fun. It was the "Pakalpooram" at a temple nearby. That's a 5-6 hour long procession of sorts with elephants and percussions and colourful umbrellas and all that hullabaloo. Well,not exactly fun,in the conventional sense,unless it is for those fanatic festival lovers who travel from temple to temple,listening to these. It was fun for me for an altogether different reason.

I was home for this after almost 5 years. So I made it a point to stay till the end to etch it in my memory..who knows when I'll see all this next...I came across a lot of people I haven't set eyes on in years. It was fun to see how these people have changed,how much they have changed etc. These are people I've known for or at least seen all my life. Suddenly I could detect the traces that time left on their faces,their manners etc.

Most interesting was the transformation of the so-called "hotties" and "yuckies" when I was growing up. The first title refers to the guys who were like 7-8 years older than me...my friends' brothers,my cousins' friends from college etc,the ones you are most likely to develop a crush on when you are 14. The second refers to the ones who were my age or were like 3-4 years older,the ones you find yucky and immature and not at all fanciable. I found the change more striking in these two groups maybe because I was looking at them not with the pink shades of a teenager,but with the mature(I can see eyes rolling) sight of a 23 year old.

The older ones have become,well,old. They must ,be in early to mid 30's by now,have developed paunches,started losing hair,gotten married (kiss of death,I tell you),some have even become fathers. The aura of glamour that left kids(then) like me gaping starry eyed at them have more or less diminished. They have become regular 'uncles'.

The ones closer to my age have aged too,as have I. They have become men,rather than the idiotic boys I seem to remember. Some of them have even developed quite intense good looks,text book cases of ugly ducklings growing up to be swans. They don't seem so yucky anymore. Most of them are more or less settled in their careers,or are aiming to be in a couple of years,some are even thinking of marriage and all that comes with it. It is rather strange to see it happening,you know,like I'm stuck in a time warp where everyone else goes forward but me. It is also nice in a way,after all,change is the only unshakeable law of nature.

It was all rather nostalgic for me.As I said it was after 5 years that I was home for this event. It is sort of a big deal for everyone here, you know. Everyone is on the streets,whatever their age and whatever their creed. It is rather endearing,the simplicity of it all. I realise that I might never stay in the place I grew up for any degree of permanence for a long time,perhaps never. I also realise that wherever I go,I shall always carry a piece of this land,these memories with me. It is sort of like an antiquated notion along the lines of "Of my land". That is the only way I can explain the constriction in my chest when I cross the Big River and embark on a journey  and the relief I feel when I cross it back to return home. It is like a mental umbilical cord  binds me to this place,calls me back to relax and unwind when I'm down.....

When I went here and there,did this and that... :)

Warning: This is pretty much gonna be an "I went there,I saw that,I ate that" post with nothing substantial in it (Hell,when is it ever there...). I don't have anything to blog about and I am slightly bored...!!! 

It was a bright,sunny,humid day when we decided to go to the beach. It was hardly 10-15 kilometres away...but no one seemed to know the way ;) It was a lot of fun...We splashed about in the sea, walked on the sand,dried off on the rocks,watched the sunset.....It was a wonderful day :) :) :)

Then we ate this on the way back...and it was yummmmmmm ;) :D :D :D

This one is from yet another sunny day,at the Marine Drive (Kochi of course).....We know that sunlight has seven colours. Do we also know that it has this many forms???

This is from a hookah plan that backfired. We reached the place only to discover that it is closed for renovations. We wanted a 'change', so we did a 'BPL' on the CCD and went another place. It was called 'Cafe Cube'. It was quaint and cosy and inviting. Sort of reminded me of a Barista we frequented when in school and which,sadly enough doesn't exist anymore (ngeee ngeeeeee).  It had games and books and cartoon characters on the walls :) Cube certainly is Cute :)

Yes,it is UNO. Now you know the remarkable mental growth of the people I hang out with...sigh (:P) ;)

Last,but not the least,is a picture from Thiruvananthapuram Museum and Zoo premises,taken when I had gone to give GRE exam (not at the zoo,thank you very much). The sky was just too beautiful :)

To You...Love, Me

You are love,
You are life,
You are everything...

I was colourless,
Lying scared and forgotten
In some deep recess
Of my own mind.

Your love gave me colour
Gave me wings
And a will to live;
Gave me hope,
Gave me light,
Gave me  courage,to dream again.

You made me whole again,
Woke me from the dead
Made me try again,
When I had all,but given up...

You are love,
You are life
You truly are everything....To Me....

MINE ;)

The memory of these talks we have, bring a smile to my face. I love talking to you. I love the way your face scrunches up when you are paying attention.I love the way your face relaxes when you smile.  I love the way you smile when I have said something amusing,or absurd,or when you have. I love the way you keep asking questions upon questions upon questions. It makes me feel special. I love it that you are curious about what I do or think about stuff,how and why I do (or think) so and so forth. I love it that you can be so totally candid about things. I love that flabbergasted expression on your face when I say something shocking. I love the way you burst out laughing almost right after, and that then you just can't seem to stop it. I love it that I can surprise you into mild embarrassment sometimes,when our gazes lock. I love the way we can just talk on and on even after the conversation has ceased to make sense to people around. I love those moments,for it feels like we are the only people there...I love all that...and more...You truly are all I could have wished for. You are divine, and...You are MINE ;) ;) <3

Sun was obscured by clouds for a very very long time. I had almost forgotten what he even looked like. I had started thinking that Moon wasn't so bad either...After all,he showed me light where none existed.Slowly, bit by bit, I had started forgetting the Sun,well, not quite. He stuck in there somewhere refusing to budge, I understand now. I was getting tired of the Moon's waxing and waning...He started behaving like a woman who pmses every day. Then, one fine day, the clouds moved over, and I saw Sun clearly for the first time in a long time...And I realised, that the Moon didn't matter, no one else did, nothing else did...It was the Sun, it always  was the Sun :) :) :) <3