Bhubaneswar Enjoys A Wet September

Bhubaneswar Enjoys A Wet September

Romancing The Rains

From petrichor to Raag Malhar, the elusive charms of the monsoon season are endless. The incessant rains bring with them the familiar deluge of nostalgia. The aroma can be felt, long before you can feel the rain. That stifling air before the first showers brings nostalgia. The whiff of petrichor aptly justifies the beautiful, evocative word for the smell of earth after the first rains.

Not just one fragrance, there are several aromatic associations with rain which aren’t enough to describe the romance of the rains. In the countryside, it is a mix of earth and crops, by the ocean, it has the tinge of a salty infusion and in the city, a crazy mix of petrol, tar, sweat and dust; indeed a smell to erase smells. “The rain brings back a flood of memories down the memory lane- the smell of a wet raincoat, soggy books wrapped in protective plastic and squelchy rubber shoes walking towards a bowl of steaming Maggi. Those were the days,” recalls Somesh Acharya, an MBA aspirant, as he gazes out of the window while sipping hot tea. The rain nourishes memories.

“Freshly-fried pakoras with a steaming cup of coffee on a stormy day, is my kryptonite! This is my weakness. The truth of the matter is, we are a nation of deep-fried desires and the monsoon is the perfect getaway to escape. The WFH culture has given me the space to enjoy the weather to the fullest. This is a perfect atmosphere to dive into the pool of nostalgia,” shares Nikita Agarwal, lazing around with work in one hand and memories in another.

Deep-Fried Desires

Monsoon brings with itself a season of flirtation and like all romances, this too has a steamy side. The monsoon elicits a rainbow of emotions as it is filled with both amazing and annoying moments. The gullibility of romanticising the rains can be attributed to the lure of chai and pakoras. Chai and pakoras have become the seductive symbols of rain.

“I am into a committed relationship with monsoons, but like any other bond we too have our highs and lows. The daily nightmare of booking a cab for work, getting late for that important meeting because of the languid traffic, getting drenched in the stinky water splashed by moving vehicles are some of the things that can make even the biggest sentimentalist pissed off by the season. But at the end of the day I love the rain. Gorging on those thinly sliced potato bhajia or a spiky onion one while the weighing scale gives me a nasty look is the priority. Lustily biting into that green chilli bhajiya by mistake is heavenly. An addition of a gobi or baigan offering makes it all the more alluring. I see in my future a well-intentioned yet utterly neglected air-fryer as a concession to my rapidly hardening arteries,” laughs Ananya Mohanty as she shares her formidable bond with rain.

Rainy-Day Scene

Bollywood adds to the romance of rain by making people fall in love head over heels with it. Be it Miya Tansen’s Raag Malhar or Nargis and Raj Kapoor huddled under an umbrella, rain evokes the creative imagination in us. Millions of love stories are woven, nurtured and fulfilled in the rain. Biting into that roasted corn graced generously with salt and chilli masala with your loved one has a different audience altogether. Stolen kisses in autos and gallantly loaned jackets in a sudden squall are the treats of monsoons. The tuneless symphony of lightning and thunder followed by electricity failure gives way to family get-together time. 

“Year after year, the cheerless art teacher would inevitably ask us to draw a rainy-day scene and the students’ artistic talents gave way to sophisticated as well as incomprehensible drawings. I was among those who could never go beyond sticking figures in strange, inhuman poses.  I always envied my classmates’ relatively sophisticated drawings which involved children sailing paper boats in a puddle and people wearing raincoats and holding umbrellas. I preferred sailing my own handmade boats in the puddle rather than picturising others doing the same.