My Monsoon Write-up

I’ve been living in Kolkata for just more than a year. Over the year, I experienced the delta climate that is, no matter what, there WILL be humidity palpable. Humidity- as defined by science is the amount of water vapor present in the air. Now I’m not sure about this in context of my present city. My summer internship was in Kolkata stretching over early May to early July. I had to travel places all around the city of which I never heard of. And what my viáje had been. It was like the Fort Minor song- 10% luck, 20% skill, 15% concentrated power of will, 5% pleasure, 50% pain, and 100% reasons for the summer to blame. I lived though, surprisingly. Thanks to the ice-cream, lemonade, sugarcane and juice vendors. That segment must have been happier and I was 3000 bucks lighter. During day, I felt as if the sun had concaved its solastice all at me. During night, I discovered that, it was the same sun that had been coming up in the sky disguised as the moon. Everything in my flat was burning up as if it had got a fever. Even the refrigerator defied the laws of thermodynamics. I was frustrated and my pains shrieked high at the supreme above asking where Zeus was hiding.

It was around 5 o’clock in the evening. I was returning to my room after a hot and hectic day at office. I was walking down the road towards Gariahat Square to catch a transport. With the sun deep down the horizon, the humidity was soaring high at 66% and the temperature of 32˚ was really unbearable. My brain was craving for a cold wave to sweep across and my core was cursing the timid weathers of Calcutta in desperation. Monsoon had entered Kerala in early June. It was 10^th of June and monsoon was supposed to hit here.

As I finished my ice cream, I was wondering, where that thing called “monsoon” was. I came out off the pavement to catch a breeze which had a chance of blowing as high as I getting an 8 in my trimester. A couple of steps there, suddenly I felt a drop of water tipping on my temple. It came trickling down my face and it was a sensation indescribable. As mad at my situation I was, I looked up hoping for a miracle. And I saw a set of dark clouds floating fast and big.

Hardly two minutes after my gaze, the sky was bloated completely by the clouds. There was an aroma of the earth in the air, which whooshed past me cold. Another big drop of chilly water fell down on my face. I opened my mouth to catch a drop of the nectar. After a drop or two to my mouth, it was everywhere. People were running to find a shade. The ones under the roofs were watching the pouring in an utmost satisfaction, thanking the god of thunder. Children were dancing with their arms stretched. And I stood there consuming every ounce of my long dreaded ecstasy. The monsoon had come finally.

When the ground heat started hazing, the coldness in the atmosphere spiked. The wind was a torrent of darkness among the busy road. The sun was nowhere to be seen. It set west saying that let the rain commensurate the lust for shower you have been agonized by. As I took a shelter under a cabin, I was thinking about saving my phone. Otherwise, I’d have joined those who welcomed the monsoon by a dance of envy.

For about 15 minutes it rained. Then ‘twas gone; vanished as if there was never any. The society came out of the hiding and got engaged. As I came out grinding my teeth, I was praying for the scene to repeat. I took off in an auto, and whizzed towards Ruby watching the roads alongside by me, moist and warm. Flora featured a rich green lustre with the droplets of the aqua waiting to gravity. Time to take out my camera, I thought.

Calcutta, I’ve never been so happier to see your mood during my reign here over the year. You have shown me in every possible way to talk about you. But that day you proved me against all my deceptions that you CAN. I saw your fiercest outlook by the fusillade of the wind. But, as the dust settled, a calm and clear sky looked at me without any disdain. Before that day, I never knew the essence of monsoon. Till day, I savor those moments which still set a rare agitation in my mind and vein.