Rain, my chum!

It is amazing how I wrote my first article on rain exactly three years ago and danced with such a joy to see it coming out of print (on a rainy day). Here I am today, sitting on the same chair by the same ajar window looking perhaps at the same raindrops that fell three years ago.
Looking at the lively pearl-like raindrops that are dribbling down from the Jambu leaves, I just realized that the amount of our love or hate towards rain defines how intricate our lives have become in the process of growing up.
During those ‘uniform’ days, rain, for me, was such a treat of joy that the bitterness of ‘kottamalli’ was not strong enough to keep me indoors when it was pouring outside. I wanted to see, to touch and to explore what rain did to the giant trees in the school garden. I watched with fascination how the baby green grass in the playground danced to the tune of the divine drizzles. Taking a trek on the born-again plush carpet under the canopy of velvety rain clouds was too good to be missed at any rate.
The end result was, a trip home with smelly wet socks, sputtering muddy shoes and violent sneezing at most irregular intervals.
But, things changed when I started working. However much I loved the rain, I did not want to see it greet me before I was safely inside my office, greeted by my fellow workers. Potholes scared me, and the same wind that felt so soothing against my uniform became an evil force which tried to rob me of my umbrella. Mud, the creamy thing that happily stuck to my white shoes and socks and made Batik designs on my uniform, began to take the shape of the mood-spoiler of my clothes and sometimes me.
After the initial love-hate phase, today I greet the rain again as a long lost friend. I stand looking in awe at the way it blends with the roaring wind and make trees dance to their composition. I smile when it splashes a few rain drops on the sheet of paper I was scribbling on. And, I open my window full to welcome the rest.
After all, I didn’t ask for the intricacy that surrounds my life nor did I love to deviate myself from the cheerful forces that made me a happy person long time ago.