Believe it or not it’s been raining in Dubai the last couple of days. Mild, short showers – they pass before you’ve even realised that it’s rained. But last evening it rained so hard - we could actually hear the raindrops on our rooftop. My colleagues, mostly Brits and Indians – both countries blessed with ample rain, ran to the window to try and smell the rain too.
It’s funny how some sounds and smells can take you back to another time and place. The sound of the rain took me back to my growing up years in Pune, more specifically in Chinchwad. My sisters and I used to make paper boats and send them down the tiny streams that flowed outside our gate. They were enjoyable times, despite the frequent and long electricity cuts. I remember reading my Enid Blyton books by candlelight and fantasizing what it would be like to study in a school like Malory Towers and play lacrosse. We used to get thrilled watching muddy water come out of the taps and we almost believed it was tea.

I watched the movie The Jane Austen Book Club two nights ago and it reminded me of Trishna - the Indian televised version of Pride and Prejudice, telecast on Doordarshan many years ago. We used to look forward to Sunday afternoon to catch the next episode. We are four sisters and used to draw parallels with the serial, in which it was a family of four daughters instead of five. I remember getting disappointed when I finally read the book and found that the Bennet’s had five daughters. Since I am the second born in my family I secretly hoped to find my Mr. Darcy, in as interesting and dramatic a manner as Elizabeth found hers.

Today is Makar Sankranti and I remember carrying Tilgul to school and sharing it with my class-mates. Also the excitement of finding out whose mehendi was the darkest during Naag Panchami. Or for that matter, shopping for expensive soaps for our ‘Abhyang Snaan’ in Diwali and the very colourful, but brash games we played with kids of our colony on Holi.
I rarely think about these things, it’s as if they happened to another person in another place and era, but then something happens and the gates open and these happy memories come flooding back.