Monsoon in Mumbai

Rain Rain go away,
come back again soon but not when I am on my way,
for when I reach office I wanna be dry as hay,
and then you come back for me to enjoy while I'm indoors all day.
A worse yet most apt adaptation of the age old Little Johnny wants to play - ' not lil johnny who is the brunt of all adult jokes' - to suit the Mumbai Monsoons.

This time around its my second stint in Mumbai, and I find myself just as captivated, irritated, mesmerized and disgusted with the constant rains as I was the first time I lived through it. Monsoon in Mumbai is probably one of the most dreaded yet most awaited seasons of the year. There simply is something about the lashing rains on the crowded streets that awakens a sense of romanticism in almost everyone in the city. The best part for me is to observe how indifferent people are to the pouring rain, whether or not they are prepared to face the wrath of the awe-inspiring heavy grey thunder clouds. I thought of blogging on the rains in Mumbai, as I walked down the streets in Powai to meet my friend who was waiting patiently in some sought out shelter, I was filled with silent glee at the perfect opportunity to 'have no choice but get drenched' as he was waiting. And as I was filled with all these self indulgent emotions, I also noticed that everyone else around me too was making their way through the rain, some enjoying it, some seeming indifferent to it, but no one looked disgusted by the rain.

The ones that had dead pan expressions and seemed lost in some other thought, oblivious to the fact that they were getting wet right to their bones, were the true Mumbaikars, and the ones that fascinated me the most. There's something so innately resilient about them, like you take one look at them and know that nothing can get them down, neither all the rain in the world nor all the bomb blasts. I too hope that one day I would walk down the streets looking as indifferent and unaffected as they did in the rain, but for now I was just loving it.

After meeting my friend and deciding on the plans for the day, came the part about the monsoon that disgusts me the most, finding transport - specifically a mode of transport that is public. My friend and I ,both true blue Hyderabadis, had to walk for about 40 minutes in the pouring rain towards our destination before we could finally convince an auto guy to 'kindly do us the favour' of dropping us off to wherever he thought was convenient for HIM. My friend was disgusted at the absolutely rude and brazen attitude of the auto drivers, and yet he seemed to be enjoying himself a little through all the disgust that was showing on his face. We then had to take a cab till we were almost home and then walk the rest of the way in the still pouring rain.

As we reached home, drenched to the core, I observed to myself that this was probably a very mundane experience the average Mumbaikar had to experience on a daily basis, and yet the experience seemed so exciting to me. Not to say I wasn't thinking of it as an extremely irritating ordeal that I had just gone through, but that was the thing about Mumbai and its rains, you can love them and hate them at the same time. In no other city would you be able to stand at the Worli Sea Face or sit at Marine drive while there was a slight drizzle, and watch the waves breaking against the rocks and feel the fine spray of the breaking waves right up to your eyelids. Even in Wake Up Sid, it seems only right that the story comes together, along with its hero and heroine, when the rains start pouring, and remind us of the scene where Sid, the home-grown Mumbaikar had earlier told the recent immigrant Aisha that she was 'going to love the Mumbai rains.'

Well I certainly didn't need any Sid to tell me the first time that I was gonna love the rains in Mumbai, I simply did. The rains transformed the city but never changed its spirit. This year now, the rains have only just started here and going by the trends over the last 3 years, I am still going to have plenty of time to enjoy getting drenched to the core, or to curse the clouds for breaking out just as I step out for work, or to love seeing the street children running around in the 'cats-and-dogs' kinda rains, or to screw my nose up in disgust as a car splashes all the muddy dirty water on my freshly ironed clothes... lots of time to do it all and love all of it and hate it all the same.