Rain!

It has been raining for three days now and though the initial spurts of heavy rain had brought some relief from the heat, now there is no relief. The only true respite is the time I venture forth and go to market. The market is quite close to my mother in law’s apartment (where we are currently living). Initially the streets, dimpled with potholes that serve as reservoirs for rainwater, were a source of some distress. I tried to hop around the puddles, trying to make my way through the maze but sometimes, I’ve figured, it’s important to just stomp through it. It’s important to just shove through the crowd, the endless and teeming crowd that always seems to be going in the opposite direction from me.
So, in the few short days that I have gone alone to the market, I have learned that there is only one bhaji walla selling jhambul, that you have to venture closer to the train station to get the bigger lemons. The coconut seller taps the coconuts tap-tap-tap to insure a good product! I have learned one important thing, that if you favor one bhaji walla over another you get some free stuff. And that brings me to the poor bhaji wallas! All day they sit in the sometime torrential rain, with their goods covered in tarp, they themselves sometimes soaked. It’s got to be rough for business. All the cilantro is wet, as is the mint and kadi patta…not their fault, still I heard many a customer complaining at the dismal quality of the herbs…Poor dudes.
A trip to the market is nice, even, maybe because of the rain. There’s a camaraderie in everyone trudging through the rain, the equalizing quality of rain is something marvelous. Though I imagine, the Ambani household doesn’t participate in this equalizing…