Lagi aaj saawan ki phir woh jhadi hai.....

1990, Sultry Sridevi clad in see-thru yellow saree tied to expose naval, dances like a young girl as if her feelings are aroused by her first saawan. Vinod Khanna watches from the first floor balcony, but his empty eyes can’t see Sri. The saawan brings back painful memories of the times he spent with his own lover. The song is probably the pinnacle of rain dance in a bollywood flick. Sridevi, also, probably was the pinnacle of classic Indian beauty. I watched Chandni five times in the theater, so spellbound I was by her magical charm.

1992, Surat, it rained cats and dogs that summer. Friend of mine & I went to the city to run errands. We took the local bus on our way back. When we reached close to the campus, the road going towards the college was completely flooded. We were dropped by the bus 200m before the college gate. We rolled up our pants and went back to the college walking through two feet water with rain drops smashing on our heads. Nevertheless, it was thrilling experience.

Sometime in 90s, I was in Doon on one of my regular visits. As usual, Dinu & I decided to take a walk into the Cantt area. It was cloudy, but we decided not to take umbrellas. By the time we reached inside Cantt, it started raining so heavily, that we got no time to find shelter. We ran, but we realized it made it worse plus the thick raindrops painfully hit our faces like little hammer. We walked back home taking the rain in our stride. At one point we crossed a couple of equally adventurous girls, walking merrily with their suits totally drenched in rain and stuck to their bodies. Our saawan instincts took over and after reaching about 10 meters ahead of them, we took off our t-shirts and exposed our manly bodies, to them, with water dripping frantically down our young and naked flesh. As Rose from Titanic would say - it was one of the most erotic moment of our lives. BTW, this was before we got married, just to make it legal.

1995, my last bachelor year. Ajay, Ajay Arora, Anu, Ekta, Dinesh, Ashish, and I took a trip to Mussorie on bunch of Puchs & Hondas. The weather remained cloudy while we were in Mussorie, but as soon as we started descending, it started raining heavily. We got totally drenched as the rain pierced our faces on high speed drive downhill. Instead of stopping, we drove faster even though the bends were treacherous. On our way, we noticed a hut-shop that was serving hot tea, and we sat there sipping on our steaming tea and puffing on navy cuts while watching wet road through the water sliding down the edges of the hut.

Today, it rains again, and it brings back these and other memories. It's not saawan, yet, but change is surely in the air. After real severe winter, this is the first rain of the spring. For the first time this year, yesterday, the temps creeped up into 60s (Fahrenheit). The street was clad with young boys playing basketball and riding their skateboards. Kabir and Krishi also enjoyed the swings in the backyard. Here's wishing everybody great season ahead.