Arun Rajagopal

Muscat’s gettin a shower! March 18, 2007

It’s raining in Muscat. I woke up early in the morning to watch rain drops pitter-patter against the window and thought I must be dreaming. May be it was the effect of the bottle of Wincarnis I had downed yesterday I thought, so I went back to snoozeland and then when I finally dragged myself out of bed, voila… raindrops were still pitter-pattering against the glass panes. Tried to take snaps of the mountain view across the window. I’m afraid it didn’t turn out that well. Missed having my blue cheeked bee eater friend hanging about the satellite dish, I suspect he is having an affair, I see him crooning to another bee eater these days. Hope he is somewhere safe away from the rains. Lemme just think some of the best memories I have about rain…

1. Jumping about in the rains when I was a kid at my ancestral home in Ernakulam, Kerala. I used to actually wade about in the pools of slushy water using as an umbrella as a boat!
2. Fishing in the overflowing drains of Ernakulam using baskets and sticks, and then yelling ‘Karuppine pidiche karuup’ (Karup is a thorny fish). Moi was an expert in netting the best catch out there.
3. Have the rain hit my face as I stare into the heavens leaning out of the door of Kerala Express racing out of Coimbatore on a moody April morning.
4. Racing on a bike braving the lashing downpour, desperately trying to make it on time for a science quiz at primary school, turning up late eventually and having Jayanti Ma’am get the water off my head with her perfumed hankie.
5. Lying on my bed / standing at the balcony and trying to listen / watch the rain compose its symphonies of anger, despair, depression, mirth and more. Happens very much often.
6. Walking alone on the streets of Bangkok as a quick evening shower drenches the fetid city, sending up plumes of a million odours.
7. Taking little Unati out for a walk today, sequestered under a umbrella, as the Muscat skies open up for a sob session.
8. Writing this blog while sipping coffee and being serenaded by Tamil music when I try to recount my best memories of rain.

Chan from UMS Advertising, Muscat clicked a few snaps on the Muscat rains – mostly of overflowing wadis. I particularly love this one which has got giant trucks drowned next to the Darsait Lulu Hypermarket. The weatherman has forecast showers for Oman in days to come due to ‘an expansion in the current atmospheric depression in the region’. Whoa.