Monsoon Musings

I haven’t updated my blog since April. To be frank I didn't get any interesting topic to write about. Plus I have had a handful of official assignments in the last couple of weeks.  They took a major share of my days and left me worn-out by the time I reach the hostel.

Even after buying a laptop I couldn't find an interesting topic to jot-down. And still I am thinking about what I should write and trying to figure-out the best topic from a bunch of thoughts that I am pondering over now.  But from the endless list if I am asked to choose one I prefer talking about rain. It is rainy season again!

Rain always brings out a mixture of emotions; some feel romantic, some others feel lonely, depressed and low, and certain others like me feel extremely happy watching rain or getting drenched. But rain does arouse human feelings, a lot of feelings.

The monsoon is never just one among those seasonal changes for me. It’s during this time I take time and enjoy even simple things. By simple things I mean the really simple ones like watching kids making paper boats and enjoying running around and playing in the rain, seeing the much serious mommies shouting from their houses ordering their kids to get back. Even now (that’s because I am 30, an age where I am supposed to have a serious life) I make paper boats and run out as soon as the rain stops to let them sail in the water.

Actually I love the pitter-patter kind of one than the heavy rain. Well, let me rephrase a little; when I am out on the streets I prefer the pitter-patter, but when I am near the window side I like watching both, sipping a hot coffee ( I know it’s the cliché again! But I am serious.) Make some coffee and yummilicious pakodas, take your favorite book, go and sit nearby your window enjoying the book, pakodas and the rain; you won’t get those blissful moments anywhere else I bet. Not even in your favorite holiday destination. We have a good balcony there in the hostel where we all gather for our post-dinner chit-chats. That’s the best place on earth to watch it raining outside.

Last week I had to attend the marriage of a colleague. The venue was about 40 Km from here and we all went in a bus that the company hired. I was the last one to get in to the bus and got the first seat, close by a window. It was a sunny day but rain started to pour out of nowhere right from the moment we started.  Rain drops on my windowpane!  I love drawing pictures on the window pane when it’s raining outside and during the trip I enjoyed good ample time drawing funny faces on the window pane.

It rains all the day now, but gets intense in the evening. All the traffic lines in my city get really longer during rain and I have to spend more time to reach my hostel. But I seriously don’t mind sitting in the city bus watching the pitter-patter outside. After getting down at our bus stop I have to walk for about five minutes to reach my hostel. With slower than the snail footsteps I take almost fifteen minutes to reach there when it rains and never tell my dear mom why I am late. Like any other caring mom, even my mom doesn’t like me walking around in rain. Sorry mom, but I love it! Sometimes I just wish I had a whole day to sit in my room and watch rain, and listen to the sound of raindrops as they hit my roof. Just the thought of it creates a peaceful sensation in my mind.

I love to just sit and watch rain but many of my friends don’t understand why I enjoy rain so much. I don’t think I can ever explain the magical and ecstatic feel that rain gives me. It brings in a lot of good memories that hug me tight making me feel that I have a lot of things to be happy about, to be proud about.

PS – I don’t see the samosa chaat walas these days. Seems the city officials have put a strict ban on street vendors. Or else the spicy and flavorsome chats would have increased the joy of watching rain! :(

Confessions of a vegetable pan roll addict

Why is that bakery so close to my bus stop, making me literally salivate over those luscious pan rolls?

This is the question I have been my asking myself ever since I saw the bakery and started having their lip-smacking, ‘seductive’ vegetable pan roll. Once or twice in a week was my so called self-allotted ration in the beginning, but it slowly started increasing alarmingly because of my uncontrollable craving for pan rolls and rose so high to a level where I started having one pan roll every evening! Can you imagine? Almost 25- 30 pan rolls per month! Oh! I should not miss the amount of profit that they made out of my craving for pan rolls; almost 350 rupees per month. The pan rolls were so yum making me want them more and more that I hardly started bothering about money, the amount of unnecessary calories, the additives and preservatives getting in to my body. All that I could see from the bus stop was the spicy and scrumptious pan rolls dragging me towards them in minutes. Relishing those pan rolls thus started becoming a part of my day today life; draining my health and my pocket simultaneously. Sort of compulsive eating I should say! Or I should rephrase it as the result of sorrows of a foodie living in a hostel. Well, you all know how hostel food is! So pan rolls brought a lot of happiness for the foodie in me.

But within a short time the pan roll eating disorder slowly started showing its hidden monstrous face. I started getting stomach problems on a regular basis due to the higher amount of spicy content in them, which started upsetting my dad who never knew about my ‘pan roll addiction’. Thank god!

I somehow wanted to stop my pan roll addiction and obviously the only remedy was to stop buying it, but this wasn’t very practical in the beginning. Although I had made up my mind, there had been many moments in the initial stage when a particular trigger used to bring back my pan roll addiction and I used to unknowingly walk towards the bakery , buy pan rolls and have it. A distraction from this was really necessary and it was then I had to finally start taking a different route to my hostel, much way from the premises of the bakery so that I don’t even get a glance of the delectable pan rolls. I also started having fruits in the evening to lessen and slowly overcome my urge for pan rolls, to put an end to the kind of gluttony I had. It took time for things to settle down. Now it has been almost 4-5 months, and I won’t say that I completely stopped having pan rolls. Yea, I have it once in two weeks or so, but the glutton is no more alive.

Enroute to days without pan rolls!