2005-07-25

: Rain Rain Come Again..........



  • Friday July 22: So it is here. Finally!!!!!! The heat has been swealtering the past couple of weeks. The humidity has been on the rise. The clouds would come, turn grey, and go. I used to wonder why they entice you so much, and then just leave. It might be God's way of playing with the devil in the "valley of the sun". So the heat and the humidity have been rising, and finally it happened!!!! The unimaginable!!!!! By sunset (well, you have to know that Mr.Sun sets at 8pm here in this part of the world), there was a steady wind picking up. I knew what was to come. A dust storm. Told H to keep Asha indoors, as it is pretty dangerous. We stayed indoors most of the time. Then at around 9:30pm the skies let loose!!!! The monsoon is here. FINALLY!!!!! I have been longing for some rain. I have been hearing all these stories from home (that would be Kerala) about rain and the monsoon, and could not wait for one here. Well, the thunderstorm was pretty violent I should say. The winds were pretty strong, the rain pretty heavy. Thankfully, the power did not go off, neither did a tree fall on our car. Thats the last thing we need now.

  • Saturday July 23: i always loved the morning after the rain. Especially here in Arizona, the heat kicks in pretty early thanks to the barren desert. I love the humidity still lingering in the air. Walked out to our balcony, sipping a cup of steaming coffee. The morning was great. Wished this happened more often than a random day. I tell my friends that rain happens here when a cloud has lost its way, and then says "Oh f**k! I am screwed!!!". Anyways, saturday was already planned for. I had to help H clean the front room. My office was a big mess. I have to get it ready for school. Can you believe school starts in less than three weeks?????? Asha's place got a makeover too.

  • Sunday July 24: Family dinner, at A&D's place. We havent had one in more than 2 months if i remember right. This time we are celebrating H's, G's, and K's birthdays. 10 of us met at A&D's new house they bought in Chandler. It was a 25 min drive from here. H tried her hand at making carrot cake. As usual, she was not very encouraged herself about the outcome. I kept telling her it would taste good. Family dinner was fun. It is always fun to meet and be with people who you love, and who care about you too. Asha had fallen asleep by the time we get there. D tried to take her, but she in the car seat is a heavy "object" I should say. So A took care of transporting Asha in the carseat inside, while I helped H with carrying the cakes (yeah, she made 2 of 'em. amazing huh?) and the other food (a rather insignificant Chapati and masala). So we are in the house exchanging "whatsups" and "how u doins". Now A&D's house has high ceilings, and since they have not furnished it fully yet, the noises are rather loud, and they echo too:-) (just imagine the size of the house ;-) ). Asha woke up because of the slightly high noise levels, and H took her out of the car seat. So here she is, just awake, and wondering "I was in a different place before I went to sleep, and here I am in a totally new place", on her mom, and aunty D comes to her and says "hellowwww ashakuttieeee". The sight of D coming towards her may have scared her, and she just let it loose there. Wailing and wailing.......I was cooking the chapatis, and I hear this. I run to H and pick her up. She is still crying, and I am telling her "its ok dear. its only aunty D". Yeah, like she understands.....waaiiiiiilllllll.......wwaaaaiiiillll......curly lips........ so bappa (thats what grandpa wants to be called) somes over, "heyyyyyyyyy".........WAAIIIIILLLLLL..........WWAAAIIILLL (in the 8th note)......bappa takes this real personal "thats it. i am leaving" he jokingly says......wwwaaaaiiiillllllll......no sign of stopping. So dada (thats none other than me......everybody has a name, why not me huh?) talks and walks her. Asha is still having those broken breaths from crying.......we call it "aengal" in malayalam.....i do not know the english translation to it. It took me a whole 10 mins to get her steady, and all of a sudden, out of the blue, uncle A comes with a teddy bear. WWWOOOOOOOWWWWWW......I lllllloove this teddy bear. It was so fun to see crackle up when she saw the teddy. Just a minute ago, she was crying. Now here she is smiling and crackling up. Aunty D feels better now :-). So this is when H explains that Asha sleeps just like her dad (that would be me), and that as soon as she (Asha) wakes up from sleep, it is necessary for her to completely come loose from the sleep, as apparantly, like her dad, she has "layers" of sleep, and with Asha, only dad and mom are supposed to be there when she is unraveling her final few sleep "layers". Hmmmmm..... what a coincidence. Atleast, my daughter has one quality I have. Layers??? what do you mean by layers????? "Oh, you could be sleeping, and I can wake you up and tell you to do things. You will answer in the positive, as if you are wide awake, but you will never wake up", my wife says. Layers, huh.......so how many layers do I have?????? What is the duration of the longest layer? Back to the family dinner. Everything went well. The food was just awesome. So much food. The cake that H made was the highlight. It was just S-U-P-E-R-B. not because she is my wife, you know.......;-)


As I look out the window of my work, I see more clouds gathering. Is this a sign of more rain....ooops, sorry, monsoon? Hope we get more monsoons here. I have always wondered why people here call this monsoon. The rains are hardly 5-10mins in duration. Occasionally you get a 20minute-er. Here is an explanation of why it is called the monsoon. I thought monsoons were the trademark of India, like the word "Freedom" is the trademark of the US.


~ciao
Now Listeneing: "Sukhamo Devi", K.J. Yesudas, Raveendran, Sukhamo Devi (1986)

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I simply love the rains! I do not remember feeling so happy as being at home...sitting at the window sill watching the rains fall...munching on some podi or any fried stuff.....gossiping with mom....humming to some lovely songs...and soaking in the wonderful atmosphere...

feels great to hear of Asha's antics....kids bring so much love and lustre into our lives... :)

Anonymous said...

Rain, not so much as 'rare' here in Pune. Officially, it has been raining since the past week and shows no signs to stop. Although, I should mention here that this is rather uncharachterestic of Pune, since I remember years when the rain used to last for 10 mins or so...

nice to hear that Ashamol is keeping dada on his toes...

ranju

khwaish said...

hey..will I be aunty 'S'?..can't wait to meet asha...

Umesh said...

Syl,
nothing can beat the rains. I still remember the nice overcast evenings during monsoon season when my friends and i would gather at Indian Coffee House (lovingly called ICH) and sip coffee and bananas fried in batter (ethaykkaa appam in malayalam). those were the days.....

Flutteringeyes,
yeah, thank god for the little rain we get here.

Ranjukkuttaa,
nice to know you are doing alright. howz Dips doin????? ingane okke nadannaa mathiyo entishtaaaa, oru kunjikkaalokke kaanande ;-)

Sanaja,
always welcome to our cove. when you come back, asha will be waiting for you :-)

~ciao

സു | Su said...

ഇതൊക്കെ മലയാളത്തില്‍ ആയിരുന്നേല്‍ നന്നായേനെ.
:)

Mrs. Spice (Holly) said...

Hmmm...I like your referral to "Mr.Sun". If they didn't know you were a dada before, they know now!

Thank you for the kind words about my cake...it wasn't too bad, was it?

oh, you have many, many layers of sleep. Like the time you woke up to Asha's crying and told me that you would get up and take care of her....then you smiled, rolled over and went right back to sleep. You had good intentions though!

You are a great dada!

Anonymous said...

Its really nice to read about you and Asha...she is surely gonna keep you on your toes :)

Listening to "Sukhamo Devi"??Hope you still listen to "Pal pal dil ke paas....."And a great lullaby for Asha kutti will be "Raaree rariram raaro" by Venugopal...Get hold of that soon :))

Umesh said...

Anonymous,
Asha already has me wrapped around her little finger :-) She has been the main reaso for my living now :-)

"Pal pal dil..." always has a sweet spot in my heart. Will listen to it always.

The best lullaby anybody has ever written, is "Omana thingal kidavooo". Ah, I just love it to death. "raareeraariram" is also great. My good friend Anoop can sing it great.

It would be great if you could reveal your identity anonymous. Atleast I know who I am writing to :-)

~ciao

Anonymous said...

Umesh, yep babies actually define your lives:)I can understand your state of mind!!!Wait for some more time and I guarantee that Asha wouldnt even give you time to blog :)
Arizona or anywhere,it has not anyway taken the "Malayali" out of you...I also vouch for "Omana Thinkal Kidavoo",but "Raaree rarirom raaro" has a soothing effect for babies :)
Well, well, for the time being I prefer to remain anonymous...Love to Ashamol...

Anonymous said...

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