Monsoon is almost here. Write about your relationship with the phenomena of weather
I grew up next to a lush green forest on the fifth floor of a high rise apartment in South Bangalore. As a kid I had no feelings about the weather. It was never hot, never cold, never humid, never dry. Always perfect. I then moved to a country where it snowed and immediately got seasonal depression. I visited a country where it was hot and humid and almost collapsed out of heat exhaustion. I went to Delhi in December and almost choked to death. As an adult I have developed strong feelings about each season.
Spring is my favourite season. The temperature is perfect everywhere in the world, the flowers are blooming, and the skies are becoming better. As a kid, spring meant summer holidays were around the corner. I've carried that joy over to my adulthood, and I'm at most creative and motivated around spring. As an adult, spring also means my allergies start subsiding, so my immune system breathes a sigh of relief.
Then it's summer. Bangalore summers are a joke to the rest of the country but not to me! This year I experienced my first summer outside the home I grew up in. I moved to an independent house with big beautiful glass windows that acted as a greenhouse, perfect for growing certain kinds of plants and also for killing me and my partner. Copious amounts of nimbu pani and the 1.5-tonne AC we bought were our saviours.
Monsoon is famously filter coffee and bajji season but my mom made bajjis year round and I wasn't allowed to drink coffee when I was a kid (sidenote to the South Indian readers of this blogpost: Is this a universal experience? Am I weird for not understanding the rain-chai-pakora hype?). So I was fairly neutral to monsoons growing up. I liked being inside while it rained and I would dread the day where I would have submerge an entire foot into a puddle. My feelings have gotten stronger growing up: I hate rain. The feeling of being wet after rain is a sensory nightmare. There are bugs everywhere. A month ago I had a spiritual impulse to go out in the rain, and following my heart led me to immediate regret and an entire foot submerged in a puddle.
I have no comments about fall in India because I'm lowkey convinced it's a marketing gimmick. I like that it's not hot or wet but I don't quite understand pumpkin spice.
Winter was a great season growing up because I liked being cozy, but when I moved to Germany, the fire nation attacked. Let me paint you a word picture: It's October, you're enjoying going to the park for a walk, there are crunchy leaves on the ground, life is good. Your colleague offhandedly says to you over lunch one day, "First winter, exciting! Have you bought a winter jacket yet?". You say, "Not yet, but I'm keeping an eye out for a good deal!". A few weeks pass by, the temperature drops a bit. The winter jackets are on sale and you buy one. You got it on discount so you feel good about yourself. Hold on to this feeling because it is one of the last positive feelings you will have for the next 3 months. By the end of November, the temperature is 5 degrees, which isn't even that cold to Germans. "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing," they say. "Shut up, Lukas," you think to yourself. You wake up at 10:00 AM and outside your window it looks like it's 6:00 AM so you're confused about if you've woken up late or early. It's dark by 3:00 PM, so you're sleepy by 6:00 PM. You've worked for 2 hours. You've had one meal and it was Maggi. The Christmas markets are the brightest source of light so you stand in the middle of the stalls with your 2 friends who aren't too depressed to leave the house and drink mulled wine and think, "Maybe this isn't so bad”. Halfway through January the Christmas markets have shut shop, you're behind on work, you haven't left the house since New Year's, there are 5 Whatsapp messages from your mom containing articles about "hot foods" that you haven't thumbs-upped yet, and you're watching Jane The Virgin for 5 hours everyday. This goes on until the end of February until it finally starts getting brighter and you crawl out of your room and feel real sunlight on your face for the first time in 5 months.
I like summers now because mangoes.
This post was written as a part of IndieWebClub #26