I reached office fairly early today : 6:20 AM - and the light drizzle had already transitioned to torrential scales...(when do I get to have my own office so that I could sleep all way up to 10....?? hmm.. need to seriously brainstorm on this one). My initial mood of accomplishing 2 particular tasks at work did not seem appealing any more and I was overwhelmed by the familiar cozy rainy day emotions.
The thunderstorms had started the previous day evening and we were all in the balcony watching kids freaking out in the rain, my sis almost got lucky when the chocolates she dropped from the third floor didn’t hit the kids below...boy, that could have been fatal (thanks to the wind shear :P ). She wanted to give the next door Pakistani kids some chocolates, but they were already down by the time the chocolates were procured - our Pakistani neighbor Sameena was leaving UAE due to the aftermath of financial crisis on their family business, her hubby decided to send the family back - they have 3 cute little kids, 1 boy n 2 girls - the 2 little sisters are really pretty with blue eyes n all and my little nephew Alen gets all shy n devotional when they occasionally show up at home :).
Sis was bit upset as her sweet friend next door was leaving - I hardly ever got to see this neighbour as she is an extremely traditional Muslim lady - she will run for life if she detects a stranger in an approximate radius of 500m. Since my sis does not grasp Urdu language and Sameena does not understand much of my sisters English, their shortlived friendship was pretty eventful :).
Back to rain - though I`m tempted to write about the romantic, nostalgic aspects of rainy days, I must temporarly annihilate those, read on -
Rain brings a refreshing mood to the residents blessed generously with harsh dusty summers here. The charm wears off pretty soon, once their cars struggle coping with the new responsibility of performing as boats - rain does cause havoc in the desert infrastructure - the drainage system usually will be clogged up with sand when nature randomly decides to send rains in this part of the world - causing large-scale flooding of roads and low lying terrains(read - flooding enough to drown the exhaust pipes of an average car). Last January people were stranded in major highways for almost a day - the morning journey to office ended up in flooded roads and the cars wont move, no matter what! Imagine this - no drinking water, no food and one cannot step out into the muddy water for a whole day - thankfully my boss allowed a day off that day. God bless him and his family ;).
Sis was bit upset as her sweet friend next door was leaving - I hardly ever got to see this neighbour as she is an extremely traditional Muslim lady - she will run for life if she detects a stranger in an approximate radius of 500m. Since my sis does not grasp Urdu language and Sameena does not understand much of my sisters English, their shortlived friendship was pretty eventful :).
Back to rain - though I`m tempted to write about the romantic, nostalgic aspects of rainy days, I must temporarly annihilate those, read on -
Rain brings a refreshing mood to the residents blessed generously with harsh dusty summers here. The charm wears off pretty soon, once their cars struggle coping with the new responsibility of performing as boats - rain does cause havoc in the desert infrastructure - the drainage system usually will be clogged up with sand when nature randomly decides to send rains in this part of the world - causing large-scale flooding of roads and low lying terrains(read - flooding enough to drown the exhaust pipes of an average car). Last January people were stranded in major highways for almost a day - the morning journey to office ended up in flooded roads and the cars wont move, no matter what! Imagine this - no drinking water, no food and one cannot step out into the muddy water for a whole day - thankfully my boss allowed a day off that day. God bless him and his family ;).
But, that said, rain is so dear to me - a soothing reminder of that beautiful place I left back - the land of monsoons...missing all those rain clouds and associated memories :(
