Happiness Rains

Paper boats racing down the storm drain with four kids cheering them on sheltered from the lightning and the pouring rain by a tin roof.

Returning home soaking wet after winning a football match we should have lost since we were playing with most of the regulars banned for poor academic performance.

Continuing the Founder's display as the lights blew, one by one, in the summer storm.

Riding an auto through the gates of a green Pune University through the drizzle of the monsoon.

Stuck in the middle of nowhere in a downpour with darkness upon us, singing.

Sprinting up to Cheena Peak in a drizzle stopping only to pull leeches off our ankles.

Spending an hour in a village home not understanding a word of the conversation, invited in from the pouring rain.

Wandering through the Himachal hills, splashing each other by jumping in the puddles, not wanting to get home.

Discarding umbrellas and walking barefoot through paddy fields looking for frogs and mushrooms.

Scrambling for higher ground in the middle of the night as the swollen Alaknanda washed the sand away from under our tents.

Is it any wonder that I love the rain so?

Round The Bend

and over the hill...

Summer. Seven years ago. How we laughed as we hiked around Nainital! The winding road to Kilbury took us round many bends and over a few hills.

That summer was like something out of one of Gerald Durrell's books. Idyllic - is that the word I'm looking for?

Our ages said that we weren't children any more, but for those two weeks, in our hearts, we were. The blue skies, the breeze through the trees, the butterflies dancing in the garden. What wouldn't I give to be that person again!

Well, I've gone round many bends since then, and over many hills....