Merriment Vs. Maladies: What The Monsoon Meant Then And Now!

Do you have memories of being a carefree child splashing your way around during the monsoon? You’ll love this post!

There were times when thinking of the monsoon brought before us an imagery of joy. Of dark clouds overshadowing the sky, the intermittent break of thunder claps and a benevolent downpour wetting not only the land underneath, but also soaking us deep within for relief from the fierce summer. One couldn’t resist running into the rains to get drenched from head to toe and never missed opportunities to ditch boring raincoats or umbrellas.

As young girls on bicycles commuting to school under heavy monsoon downpours, we laughed at the disappointed faces of people trapped inside cars, buses or under shades, torn between the longing to get wet in the rain and preventing their expensive ensembles from getting colour washed. Those days, when deliberately jumping into puddles of water on roadsides, making paper boats, taking a rain shower or watching every green leaf swirl with joy, was synonymous with a day of bountiful monsoon.

However, that was years ago.

Of late, the imagery of the Monsoon has slightly changed.

One gets to know that rains have arrived in neighboring cities only once the social media timeline begins to get flooded with messages of traffic jams. Photos of hapless office goers commuting to their workplace in two hours for a distance they usually cover in twenty minutes, begin to do rounds on facebook. Angry emojis, distressed pictures of people caught in the ruthless jamming of vehicles and even videos of verbal spats arising in traffic going berserk, conveniently replaces happy memories of a rainy day.

In a place like Delhi which makes headlines for being eleventh most polluted city in the world, monsoon comes like an impending horror. A little drizzle and the half patched roads and pot holes at every second road turn, wait to swell into mini lakes. What looks like a small and neat puddle to splash into, might actually be a deep manhole that may gulp down an entire human body into the city’s sewer drainage running into the Yamuna.

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One no longer drives to office but river rafts the vehicle through flooding roads. Obviously, the walk from parking to the building is also no less than swimming through a kiddie pool. While the hygiene conscious or high on maintenance colleagues of mine make faces of wrath at the dirty water around, the adventurous ones take to the game of filming garbage floating around and click ruthless pictures of the filth. Sharing on social media, however, would be an option contingent on the benevolence of the network provider, who most likely would have taken a day off on the occasion of a rainy day.

One midnight some years ago, I not only got stranded in office for six hours but also lost connection with my family who finally swam their way through dark streets to rescue me.

I’ve come to believe that if there’s anything that can make life messier in an unmanageable monsoon, it is poor mobile connectivity.

Just in case it rains torrentially for over 24 hours, consider taking a boat ride in place of vehicles, local trains or metros to prevent getting marooned at one place. Besides, it’ll also give a feeling of riding a Gondola in Venice! How interesting is that! Drop the idea of taking a bath at home and instead, enjoy a natural waterfall under drainage pipes from buildings. This also encourages water conservation. How about snorkeling for goodies that got drowned in the deep floods or roping in your friends to play Waboba in office?!

Disappointed with the rains, are you? Not everyone is. The few species that really make merry of the season are the tiny monsters of Darwin who know how to ‘survive as the fittest’ in rainy froth and compost, littering in open streets – mosquitoes, moths, bugs, viruses and flies!

Sometimes I wonder, why do we even call it raining ‘cats and dogs’ when it actually rains ‘mosquitoes and flies’ in the monsoon?

Nevertheless, if there is anything that could bring a rainy day to a perfect closure, it is a Single Malt or chilled Scotch, flavoured in liqueur aroma. If that doesn’t work, try our desi cup of hot ginger tea with some steaming homemade onion pakoras. A perfect panacea for relief from the headache of traffic jams and fatigue of water sports we have had throughout the day. Thankfully, some nice things about the monsoon never change!

First published here.

Top images via Pexels

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