note: I apologize for any grammatical errors...the internet is slow here...I don't have the patience to edit right now in detail. I will when I return.
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The rains are here in full force! There’s an elementary school in our backyard…so I usually peek out the balcony during recess when I’m home and watch the kids playing- the girls in dark blue skirts, hair pleated with red ribbons and the boys in matching blue pants and red ties. In the afternoons they gather for lunch, mothers or servants sending over hot “tiffins” filled with everything they would get to eat if they were home: Roti, rice, daal, vegetable, and yoghurt. My mother went to this school and grew up in the apartment I’m staying in now. Sometimes I like to look outside and imagine what her life must have been like- bringing friends and cousins home for lunch, wearing a strict uniform every day, getting “rain days” off instead of my “snow days.”
Today the playground is flooded and the kids are in their classrooms, but they will come out to the shaded outdoor area for lunch.
The rain pours loudly, drowning out the sounds of teachers giving lessons, children’s chatter and even the steady call to prayer that comes five times a day from the Masjid nearby. This rain is like a thick blanket of white noise with a clear exception. Where white noise is a natural part of the sound spectrum, it is perceived as unpleasant and unnatural- an irritating sound. The rains have the opposite affect, their calming rhythm means changes in daily routine- hanging clothes to dry indoors, scolding the children upstairs for disposing of excess water in a way that disturbs our home, and of course a very wet journey for those who decide to venture outside- but Indians adjust to these changes with reverence for the season.
People in India understand that rain helps maintain life as they know it. If the day comes where we no longer have rains, the world will suffer greatly for it.
I’m glad though, that I don’t have to travel in it today.
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