An early morning arrival at Madras, constantly checking all my available sources to check the time, because I haven't seen the sun up and bright so early in months (read as 5:45 am) was interesting entry into the city. And that day, a Sunday, was such a hot day... Such a hot humid day! I had to travel too, and boy, was I tired! That afternoon, I slept off like a baby! Tired for two reasons - the travel the previous day, and for this energy sapping day. Aaah well, wasn't this all that Madras is about? Like I mentiones, hot, humid?
Well, people, not for long!
The next day was a calm one, clouds gathered up, and by tuesday afternoon, the clouds changed to a nice shade of black... People in India like to look up and see the black coloured cotton like clouds, especially if its in the month of May... As I left my home to walk around the place, to a temple and also for some purpose mentioned in my previous post, the clouds drizzled pleasantly... Just at the pace which didn't need me to take that umbrella off my carry-bag, and with a cool breeze to eliminate any 'humid' feeling out of you. You can sometimes feel the rains to be very humid too, just stand inside a room with no fans/AC on (Indian power supply will make sure you experience it more than once in your life during rains :-P ) and you'll sweat profusely. Not here, not today, there was this breeze. Nice, cool breeze, and complementary drizzle to close the evening :-) . The 'smell of the mud', warm, and wonderful...I love it. 'Mann-vaasanai' as its called in Tamil is so nice that once your nose gets a bit this intoxicating smell into you, your eyes would close, your head would lift up and eyes would open looking for the dark clouds...automatically! A lot of times in Trichy, I my eyes would spot some black clouds alright, but they would just go pas without raining :-( .
So, was this too a passing cloud? Maybe... I don't know. For a couple of days, I've benn home alone and too lazy to read through all the pages in the newspaper. Come on! The weather report would've been my last destination in any newspaper! (and it wasn't until today that I browsed through a news channel, to check on a plane crash...again, not waiting for weather reports)
Next day, is when it started pouring! The rain clouds didn't disappoint, and they poured so hard that one may have mistaken the place to be enjoying monsoon! And along with it, came all other monsoon like characteristics - the power cuts, the distorted satellite TV signals, insects, flooded roads... The last in the list is which worries me a lot every year. There is exactly one (one and a half maybe) routes to access my apartment. And there are trucks plying on it all day, that whatever 'metalled road' the govt puts up, it always remains in a bad shape. 'Bad' is a complement to the road, because it gets much worse and ugly during monsoons... Gooey, muddy, slushy, yucky! One can't set foot on it. All those people who like to play in the puddle, I can assure you they aren't from here! So, once again, on this day, this road was a bit 'off-colour'. Thats what I heard, my neighbour told me. I rarely travel, rarely set foot outside.
And that night is when I found out that all this was because of Laila, who wanted to perform near the coasts of the TN and Andhra. Laila... aaaah... She is no beauty queen, dot dot dot, which was what I thought when people said 'Laila. She is bringing all the rain'. Thats the name that was given to this hurricane/storm - Laila. Was wondering if this was cheap publicity for something... But for what? Rubbish! But, why this wonderful name to a hurricane? I don't know. They actually take the painst to name all the hurricanes. For eg, every year the hurricanes across the Atlantic & Pacific ocean are named before hand, in alphabetical order (none starting with Q, X, Y and Z in Atlantic...Pacific, the more stormy of the two, has none with Q alone) . And they have the list ready till the year 2025. Now, thats called preparation. (the list may change, because World Met Dept may choose to 'retire' a name if they wished to). So, there is a world beyon just Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Andrew, just check if your own name is on the list :-) .
So much to enjoy about a hurricane/storm :-) . It has died down a bit here now, as its shifting more towards the north, towards Andhra... But, cloudy nevertheless. Wish its the same for a while. Agni Natchatra, if gone by, it'll be officially and spiritually and traditionally the end of Summer... Summer Solistice, will mark the end of it on the calendar, and then on, the Sun heads down south. Things will be 'cool'er finally :-) .
PS: I want to talk a bit about the idiom 'Sweat like a pig' here. (I had to talk about sweating in my blog above, hence the extra couple of mins of your time, sorry ). Sweat like a pig... hmmm... Working hard, sweating profusely is the meaning you try to bring out of this. But, did you know? Pigs can't sweat! They don't have sweat glands!!! So, sweat like something else :-P
From me, enjoying, a yet to be sunny Madrasi summer, its time to sign off.
Bubbyeee, folks!
More from me sooner or later.
For some untimely, vaguely looking, boring-to-many, hard core sports posts from me, check out the sports exclusive blog of mine, click here at your own risk :-)
did u know that most of the hurricanes are name after women? by the Husbands who find them violent :-P
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