Singing in the rain…

As a tin roof hummed gently

To foot taps of the monsoon cloud

Outside I saw a littler me

Dancing and frolicking about.

I cant sing to save my life, yet my all time favourite movie is – Singing in the rain, starring Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor and Gene Kelly.

The title song of that movie is an instant and guaranteed mood lifter. It has rescued me from many a bad days. Its not just the simple time-transcending lyrics, the soulful music or the beautifully shot video of the song, but the childlike innocence of the choreography that pulls at my heart strings. The sound that a water off a roof-drain makes on an umbrella, the uninhibited joy of being soul drenched wearing a I-could not-care-less attitude, and the jumping about in water puddles are all happy memories from an unforgettable age of innocence.

I am a lover of the rains and the monsoons, and so I have been, all my life.

I love the all engulfing mist and clouds that prelude a monsoon season. As a child I would walk to nearby woods, sit at the edge of a cliff diving down into the valleys, greedily looking at the mist forming and climbing up. I would stay there till the mist and clouds all but surrounded me completely. I also remember thinking that however much I might want to capture these moments, a photograph or even a video could not do justice to what I was feeling at the time. And now, when I live, where I live, the mist climbs up from the deep valleys and caresses everything creating a fairy world every now and then. It is a blissful existence; and we have aptly named our abode /retreat in the forest – The Misty Mountains retreat.

I love the undefinable smell of the earth that the first few showers bring. The smell is akin to drinking tea in clay-cups on a train journey. Its smell and romance, far exceeds the titillation it brings to the taste-buds. Not once in my life have I smelt that smell and failed to smile. In some mysterious ways, irrespective of where I am, it transports me back home and reconnects me with my love for nature, mountains and small towns.

And finally, I want to shout out my love for the soul cleansing showers of the monsoon. Today, after more than a decade, I gave in to the temptation of going out into a downpour and frolicked about with uninhibited abandon. It was liberating. As we grow up, we are conditioned to think about the worst case scenarios before doing anything. This approach robs us of so many opportunities that we just let pass us by, be it career choices, love interests or a simple dance in the rain.

Life passes me by

In four shades of an endless sky

And I, a face undecided

Amidst a smile and a sigh.

The ability to dance about in the rain is much more than just not being afraid of catching a cold – it is about just not being afraid, about being ok with being vulnerable, about embracing the moment, and about living life rather than merely, meekly existing.

So today, after an age had passed, I went out to dance in the rain; today, after an age had passed, I went out and embraced life..!