Sweetening the neem with her song

Sweetening the neem with her song, originally uploaded by Pixychik.

Growing up in Vizag and then Madras, very hot summers were part and parcel of life, and mom - with her fine adaptive skills that all fauji wives must possess - had learnt to fight the heat as much as one could, without ACs and coolers. It was the 80s, and middle class families like ours had fans, khus curtains, and loose cotton clothes for defence. Not ACs.

Her logic was to fight it more from the inside than the outside - with light and cooling foods - cucumbers, water-melon and gallons of lemonade and buttermilk. AND neem juice. Have you ever had neem juice? It's a death brew. To say it is chokingly bitter is to put it mildly.

But it works. And how! If you know a child that suffers from prickly heat come summer... throw out the useless Nycils, and make them drink 2 spoons of neem juice everyday for a week. The problem will go away. For life.

Meanwhile, in school, year after year, hindi text-books would carry at least one poem about the Koel - singing its sweet song in the summer - waking up the sleepy kids, ripening the mangoes, hurrying up the rain. I don't know if the Koel really did any of that - but the books said they did.

So the other day - spotting a koel in a neem tree - brought back a rush of these sweet memories from the 80s! And told me what I already suspected - the summer is here!

The long road home

The long road home, originally uploaded by Pixychik.

Smoke on the water?

Smoke on the water?, originally uploaded by Pixychik.

Mi Monet?

Baby steps, originally uploaded by Pixychik.

The big splash!

The big splash!, originally uploaded by Pixychik.

I always wondered how people got these amazing splash photos, not realizing that all I had to do was pick up my camera and grab a towel and get down to it.

4 hours, 400 photos, 1 cup of milk, 1 leaky tap and lots and lots fun later - woohoo! I'm one of those people who got these amazing splash photos!

I'm sure there's a lesson there somewhere... if only I knew what!

Give me a little time, help me clear up my mind...

Give me a little time, help me clear up my mind..., originally uploaded by Pixychik.

Wet, wet, wet

A beautiful morning today, originally uploaded by Pixychik.

Yesterday we woke up to find that it had been raining heavily for some hours - maybe since dawn, and later the entire day it was dark, cloudy and cool.

How lovely is that? Elsewhere in the world, they may find rainy days gloomy, but not us. Us? We feel thrilled to bits when it rains. Rain makes us want to drive around in the car and find a little shack serving hot coffee and deep-fried snacks. It makes us want to take off the watches and leave behind the cell-phones and go splashing in the puddles. Sit staring in the balcony. Curl up with a book. Watch a movie. Call in sick at work. Sleep. Rain really makes us happy, lazy and nostalgic.

To me, the strangest memories come back: my initial days in Bombay in 1992. Of all things, it floods my mind with the memory of the opening stains of Amy Grant's Baby Baby - like they used to waft out of homes of those envied few who had "hi-fi" music systems.

Even now, when it rains, I have to listen to that song.

What is your rain ritual?

Today, the sun has risen bright and shiny, and that is lovely too. Though, I do wish it'd rain some more. We do not need the drought.