We are a week into September. The memo seems not to have reached the monsoons. They are carrying on unfazed. Luckily though, they have toned it down a bit, appearing only intermittently. But when they do arrive it is as if giant barrels are being emptied on us from the sky.

The sky is a glorious sight to watch just before it rains. The menacing looking dark gray clouds turn day into almost-night. There’s nothing more beautiful than the green of the trees set against the gray sky. Awesome doesn’t cover it.

Sometimes this show in the sky is an empty threat. The clouds dissipate as quickly as they had gathered letting sunlight peep through, lulling poor mortals into putting their washed clothes on the line to dry. All of a sudden rain comes thundering down, the huge drops creating a racket, making Luci singularly annoyed. She then does her complaining-bark act which is something of a cross between a true bark and displeased whining. You are making mom’s clothes wet! This is unfair!

Then there are the other times when the moon comes out at night, accompanied by a few stars, in a deceptively clear sky. ‘Ahh, it’s a clear sky tonight. No rain…’ said the L&M the other day. But in the middle of the night we woke up to the sound of fiercely falling rain. Also the loud thup thup – more like THUP THUP – of water drops from the mango tree next-door falling on the tin roof of the neighbor’s car shed. Seriously, how they get to sleep with that loud noise in their ears is a mystery to me. Better them than me.

Today the frogs are singing their rain song. It is music of a different kind to my ears, reminding me of childhood days spent with cousins in our ancestral home, when power went off at the mere suggestion of rain, plunging the surroundings into darkness. Dinner, the simple and humble kanji, would be had in the light of an oil lamp. It was the time for scary stories to be shared, an early night and falling into exhausted sleep like only children can, with the drumming of rain on the tiled roof as background score.

© Shail Mohan 2019