Monsoon

I love the rain, always have. The rains remind me of my childhood. School would give us a monsoon break for about a week (no other school in Pune did that.) and the week was flexible in the calendar. The break was spent studying as invariably we had some unit tests immediately after the break. It was also the time to get your inoculation in school. The “doctors” who came were generally students at the AFMC learning to become doctors in the armed forces. The rains would not stop with the end of our week off from school. It was also the time for football. Inter class, inter house and inter school games would be organised around the same time. You could see our white uniforms get dirty due to the various games ongoing on the field during our lunch break. Playing sport was not limited to the PE class or after school when team tryouts were done. 

The monsoon in Pune would also bring about swollen rivers and the best place to see the rivers full of water were the bridge connecting the City with Deccan (Lakdi Pul - Wooden Bridge) and the Bund Garden. (Sadly there is no Bund or a Garden at the location today; while it retains the name). The Garden was great fun to have corn on the cob and look at the Mulla-Mutha in full strength with water rushing through the locks. Boats would be locked up for the period for peoples safety. As kids every other year a new raincoat was bought as one outgrew the previous one or it just was not usable anymore. Mostly the raincoats kids used were ordinary plastic that did the job of keeping you and your school bag covered. Nothing like the macintosh that I use now if travelling. 

Rains also brought with it various illnesses (which is why the inoculation in school). Kids got sick and were back playing in the rain as soon as they got healthy. It’s also probably the reason why out teachers in junior school would get upset if we were found with wet clothes after a lunch break. At home I would get a yelling for getting wet and staying in the rain longer than what was permitted, followed by warm bournvita and onion fritters. Rains make me hungry for onion fritters till this day. The bournvita has been replaced with something much stronger. 

The monsoon was fun. Paper boats in puddles, jumping into the puddles and making a splash on your unsuspecting friends, catching frogs, (I can’t believe that I did that as a kid and now find the whole idea squeamish) getting dirty due to the muddy water, eating corn on the cob and onion fritters with absolutely not a care in the world. 

What’s your monsoon story ? 

C