Rainy nights and Wednesdays always get me high

I am not sure if I have been just imagining or was it was because of the natural tendency of most people to sympathize with themselves, that the past couple of years I felt that Bangalore weather had transgressed from bad to worse.

I have been in this city for just 6 six years and in this short span of time I have witnessed this sharp meteorological  metamorphosis of Bangalore, it is incredible! (Climate change enthusiasts will be bouncing up and down). Bangalore weather was so pleasant and I have been pampered by it so bad that I never stopped short of cribbing and complaining relentlessly about the heat and humidity of any city I visited. Moreover, the tree cover campus added a drop of a few degrees extra on campus as compared to the average city temperature.

Even during peak summers, the evenings on campus and outside would be pleasant and the nights would require you to wear a jacket at most times. I would never fail to remind my friends and family in other parts of the country of how I never need to switch on the fan even in June!

 I should have realised when to shut up because at some point I think, I  pissed them off real bad. Bangalore city temperatures seemed to me to have soared up suddenly in a matter of a couple of years. We have lost the one good thing about the city that kept me at least wanting to be in Bangalore.
 Now with the scorching heat and depleting water tables I am stuck in this city with horrible roads, no night life, insane traffic, lack of good public transport amongst many other issues.


April 13thwas like a transition. The unbearable heat, humidity.. it was like the Gods were angry (well at least someone was) and wanted to punish us mere mortals. Then as the day eased out in the evening with a mildly overcast sky, the next day brought joy in the simplest form- the rains.

 We did get sprinkled by some 'so called rain' a couple of times before but it was the harvest festival day that brought in the thunder, lightening, hail (some say) and the sweetest rains. In midst of power failure, I had the most wonderful time.....

just smell the damp earth, hear the thundering and then the quiet, feel the spray on myself and see the dark room light up in electrical light in a flash.



Everything, everyone looks wonderful when wet in the rain.

The leaves that collected a tiny pool of water in their cupped hands,

the flowers dotted with mango shower,

the puddle that forms outside your door that reminds you that it rained...

Even the frogs came out to say hi to each other :)

And when the showers gave way to a powdered drizzle and then just to drops falling from the trees, I thought of walking on a dark road, under a black umbrella, finding an unnoticed coffee shop. Sitting there with a warm cup of coffee, listening to sweet nothings, let the laziness creep in ....just be happy!

(oil painting by Polina Ashihmina)