Monday, May 02, 2005

Stormy weather

Quote from 'Importance of being Earnest' -
Gwendolyn: "Don't talk to me about the weather, Mr Worthing. When people talk to me about the weather, I'm quite certain they mean something else... And that makes me so nervous."

Say! She's Gwen too!

Anyway, she's quite wrong in this case, I'm really talking about the weather...

It's summer now... So it's really HOT! Got under the weather a bit... With some headaches and stuff... But I don't feel too bad being in Bangladesh... I heard that home is equally hot... =) And we don't even get the nice cold spells of winter like over here...

For a while though, we were getting quite a nice relief from the heat... There was a short season of rain... Hmm... Rain is putting it nicely... We were getting some pretty exciting thunderstorms...

Back home, we lived in the water catchment area... (Read: Rain 24/7) And I loved watching the storms from my room window or inside the car... (the safe places)... listening to the sound of the rain hitting my window... Lightning is especially facinating to watch... The funny patterns that come up against the backdrop of the darkened sky... Just beautiful... Some would be so near that it would light up the entire house! Of cos, there were the days when I would be caught outside with no umbrella... And I'd walk up the steep slope to get home... Sometimes I'd sing and dance and drink in the surroundings... Other times, I just sloshed my way back, savouring a bad mood... But I'd always arrive at my doorstep, completely soaked to the bone...

It was nice to experience thunderstorms again...

Over here, the winds get really strong and tosses everything around... Like the dustbin on the roof of Pathshala... Feels as though it could almost lift me up and blow me away... Sometimes the sand gets swept up on the road and we gotta cover our faces... It's very terrible for rickshaw wallahs... If they have passengers, they can't stop and find shelter... they have to continue riding while closing their eyes... Good thing they don't get into any accidents... Or at least not as far as I've heard...

When the rain comes, the whole place just changes... Traffic reduces to a trickle... Everything slows down... For me, I leave the door open and let the smell of the rain and the cool breeze get into the room... Sometimes, I just stop what I'm doing and just stare at the rain... Rain always gives me that lovely lazy feeling...

Ironically, the most interesting storm that I’d experienced here isn’t a thunderstorm… It was a hailstorm… It was raining at that time… I was at work… And I started hearing a very strange sound coming from the rain… It sounded like someone throwing stones… Atiq came to get me and Jess to go see…

It was raining little ice pieces! Each piece was about the size of a 20 cent coin… (Sing dollar)… They looked very special too… Not your normal ice cube… They were round for one thing… they all had nice small spherical dense little centres… And the sides were more translucent… I ate one… Tastes just like ice… =)

Jess & I got really excited seeing the hail that we ran up to the rooftop to get a better view… We didn’t go out to the open though… Didn’t want to get wet… Besides, we both knew that if we got hit by one of those hailstones, it would hurt a lot…

Someone in office didn’t bother though… Just ran out in the rain like a madman picking up the hail stones… For the record, I didn’t call him a madman… The other people in office called him that… “Pagol!” I agree though… He didn’t have any change of clothing… So he had to wrap himself up in a blanket for the rest of the day to keep from getting a cold… Bekub…

Hate to sound judgemental but I really don’t like people doing things like that… Playing in rain when everyone is around… For one thing, you’re supposed to be working… For another, you just look like you’re trying too hard to prove that you are being spontaneous and stuff… I say… If you wanna play in the rain… Do it when no one is around…

The bad news of all this is, Jess suspects that we’ve just experienced the last of the good rainy weather… Which means, all we’re gonna get now is the plain ol’ hot humid topical weather… Sigh…

posted by thebemusedphotog @ 11:47 AM 4 comments