I can not get over the rainy season

Things have changed, they definitely have because yesterday evening when it began to pour, I was home..cooking. And then I was on phone for an hour or so. I did open the balcony door, did peek out and watched the rain fall but unlike old times not once did I stopped to gaze. But by night things had changed. Nostalgia had hit. Rains do that to me.. yesterday as well, I spent quite a bit of time recollecting some good memories attached to monsoon. The certain rituals that I have always been part of every monsoon are ingrained in my memory forever. Stuff like monsoon texts, spontaneous chai and dalwada meet-ups, long drives with songs playing full volume, getting drenched or simple sitting at home and hearing the rains pour are like the must-dos.

This time too I was woken up by an early morning call from an old buddy who couldn't stop ga ga-ing about the weather and the view from his house. 'What rains!!! What atmostphere! Chal aaja ghar chai peene ko.' We promised to catch up in a few days and hung up. Later when I drove to work, without a helmet, the wet roads, the puddles and the damp air and the drizzle did consume me.

Whatever might change, whatever might come and go, this season still is and will always remain my favorite!

BTW, I came across these lyrics in an article on the best advises mothers give to their daughters. Its by Lee Ann Womack and my eccentric head says is perfect for this weather :

This one is for mood revival and eternal hope :

'I hope you still feel small when you stand by the ocean.

Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens.

Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance.

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance.'

Things I read and listen

• A woman's confused over adopting her husband's last name as hers as she fears losing her identity if she did so.

Wow, really?! Like adopting his surname will enslave you. If your husband chose to be the dictator, adopting or not adopting his last name would become insignificant. Some food for thought for the lady though; the fact that he is letting you ponder over this mindless confusion says something about his liberal views right? If he wasn't concerned about your happiness and your freedom, would he even let you decide what surname you preferred? dah.. get a life!

• Google+ is better than Facebook/Finally Facebook has competition/Mark Zuckerburg joins Google+

Do I even care? Even if I don't, I am sure I will care enough tp waste my most useful time into figuring out how to connect with friends on Google+ who I have already re-re-re-connected on hi5 then Orkut and then on Facebook. One more 'social' network that succeeds in gluing me to my cellphone drowning away the real chatter.. actually everything real. What makes it worse for me is, I might soon need to come up with ideas and suggestions to market some of my products soon on Google+.

• Men who marry you promising the whole world, generally fulfill the promise.

An eye-opener conversation with a married friend, about what men say and what they mean, revealed some interesting facts about male attitude towards love and life in general. For ladies who have had the privilege to love a man and marry him too, might easily relate to the many things that I heard. Apart from fulfilling his promise to give you the best, he, if he has warned you about his love for untidiness, will unabashedly leave everything lying around and expect you to clear up so that he can find his den as clean as before. 'Men are kids' she said to me laughingly. 'Whether I like it or no, I have learnt it the hard say that my guy has to be mothered.'

Is she happy? For the time being her answer is a 'You bet ;)'.

• Astrologers decide your future for you.

I wore a stone(Guru) around my neck for a month, when my mum was here, believing(half-heartedly) that it will help me find a 'good' guy for marriage. I bought into stories like I will have a troublesome marriage, I will suffer and so will my husband and this pendant will bring the required balance. But, reasoning took over and I stopped wearing it. If wearing a stone could eradicate all the troubles, I would wear one each for all my problems right now and then I will attain what so many people can't - Moksha.. nai?

Nahi.. Astrology is a science which most astrologers themselves fail to understand and explain to seekers who come for help. I had asked the astrologer what sort of problems will I have to face after marriage and he had said grave ones. Like what? Umm.. really grave ones. Will it lead to divorce? Not divorce.. but real grave problems!!! So unclear are the words ' grave ones', I felt like telling the astrologer what he thinks is 'grave' is part of not just mine but everyone's life. A stone cannot change much, not atleast when the two people involved do not try hard enough. What I make of my marriage and what it makes of me is for me to work upon. So is the fate of the stone..which has found a respectable place in my house.. a place where it really belongs.

• Life is strange but best enjoyed when unplanned.

This one is my favorite. I just came back from Anandpur, a self sufficient religious town, run by the followers of Sri Paramhans Advait Mat and I have experienced the most unexpected to the most beautiful things in just a couple of days.

My family is a staunch follower of this sect and have always made it to Anandpur during the eve of Vyas Puja(guru Purnima). This time I accompanied my granny and bade papa to this place. The room we were alloted had no electricity except for a switch each for fan and bulb. The connectivity was horrible. Every place was so far away from where we stayed. 5 minutes on foot to the canteen, 10 minutes to the lunger-hall, 20 minutes on foot to the main temple and so many more minutes to figure a way to one place from another. Given almost nil connectivity, a total cut off from Facebook, the world that I lived in was filled with bald women clad in orange safas and white salwar-kameez. What I saw was young women being nudged by old for more space, women falling over each other in the hope of getting a glimpse of our guru and hands groping for packets of parle-g given away as prasad. And if this was not enough, I had the memorable journey back to Ahmedabad. Packed with rural MP population, they made my journey to and fro the toilet unimaginably irritable, I swear I could have picked a fight with a few for just standing in my way.

As much are these bitter incidents a part of my journey, a few good ones is what I am going to remember it for. Like right now, all I can think of is the sun setting at the temple, the aarti sung in unison by more than five thousand people, kadha prasad, my granny's slow walk, her incessant talk about the miracles she has seen her guru perform, the 4 '0' clock watery chai, the tasty traditional lunger, bad cellphone signal but more time to meet people and hear their stories, the 65 year old caretaker and her dedication towards this place, the yummy paranthas and achar that we somehow managed to eat in the over crowded train and the thoughtful 13 year old girl who woke her papa up and then her grand father for medicine.