These days temperature in Bombay is peaking like never before and so is the compulsive habit of everyone fuming and fretting over it. It is that time of the year when every conversation; even one with perfect stranger is incomplete without mentioning how worst is yet to come from dreadful months ahead.
Last week, while taking a stroll in our compound, I noticed fresh, tender shoots on mango, coconut, jackfruit and badam trees flourishing on every branch and the sight was sheer delight! Have you ever waited for summer just to have that divine aroma of fresh mango flowers bursting from the tree?
These days, the cuckoo and other birds staying on the tree next to my window ensure I wake up before my usual time. As much as I would love to stay bit longer in bed before embracing the frenzied cadence of the day, it is impossible to ignore cuckoo's full throttled renditions very early in mornings. Albeit, the best part is being able to sink in those sacred moments while the world is still asleep and getting to inhale heavenly fragrance of summer blooms wafting from my potted plants and garden while witnessing first rays of Sun splitting in to light announcing the new day.
There is something inherently beautiful about the way summer smells and feels around this time of the year! The other day I saw a pair of school girls; their oiled hair tied up in bright red ribbons, suddenly burst out of their school compound creating quite a stir with continuous stream of excited chatter as they flit from group to group discussing exam paper they had just attempted. They reminded me of swarm of butterflies joyous on a bright summer day, spreading pollen of good cheer. The sight made me miss simplicity of life that went by. Unlike the childhood, these days summer is perceived in completely different way. The hype around summer finds precedence over the scorching heat declaring arrival of season. Suddenly everything is buzzing with summer camps, summer holidays, summer special hobbies, summer fashion, summer jobs, summer workouts, summer diets and endless blah around it!
In my childhood, summer meant loads of fun and frolic, playing endlessly or doing absolutely nothing, spending the season without being spent and life less complicated. It meant family gatherings with more life and living languidly than doing. Summer always brought in joy of sleeping on terrace and falling asleep while counting stars with wide eyed wonder!
Summer meant quenching thirst from earthen pot, having endless glasses of sugarcane juice, aam panha, lassi or shikanji freshly made at home. Summer in childhood meant lusting for burf ka gola (ice slush)/ice cream/ kulfi on a hot afternoon in cool environs of vetiver roots (khus) curtains, immersed with heady concoction of fragrance of freshly plucked Mogra and Jasmine from the garden.
Sometimes, I wonder when did I grow old to fear those bright colourful bottles at the "golawala" cart or freak and screw my nose at sight of "kulfiwala" carts that are common sights in some old part of the city. Life was much simpler when these things were part of fearless childhood. There was no worry of infections and nothing to worry about talking to strangers.
Yeah, summer is slowly arriving with scorching heat. The palette of the season is slowly changing bringing canvas with new energy, force, vigour in form of bright colours strewn everywhere. One just needs to look outside window to bask in its rugged beauty. peaking like never before and so is the compulsive habit of everyone fuming and fretting in unison over it. It is that time of the year when every conversation; even the brief one with perfect strangers is incomplete without mentioning how worst is yet to come from the dreadful months ahead. Like a trueMumbaikar, I too am obsessed with the heat and humidity and freak every time I need to go out
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