Singing in the rain

WITH THE rains throwing a surprise in February, life in Chennai is just not the same.

So what can you do when it rains? For a city that is normally a semi-arid dust bowl, a few suggestions to handle the deluge are helpful.

1. Look out of the window, settle down with a cup of hot coffee. Or for better effects, try out ice-cream. And make sure you have the fans on, full blast.

Watching people making their way out through the slush, you will be glad you are home. Watch out for puddles, because there might be deep ditches that the friendly local Corporation or Metrowater engineer forgot to fill.

2. Rains are a good time for some ice-cream, though you would have to go out to get one. Select the oldest T-shirt/shorts/any other rag from the wardrobe, take an umbrella... not a raincoat, because that would spoil the fun. Nothing like feeling the raindrops mildly come down on you. The wild kind skip the umbrella also. Quite an adventure, but wrong steps could lead to a misadventure.

3. Take a good look at the umbrella. Black and boring. How about giving it colours? So take out the poster colours and show the world what a good artist you are. Once you do that, maybe you can take it along.

4. Plants in the balcony acquire a new look in rainy weather. Keep them beside the sill and watch them breathe with new life.

5. If one can manage the waterlogging, rains are movie times. It is easy to get the tickets this time, for there are not many dare-devils. The journey to and back from the theatre is itself quite an experience.

All said, Chennai is a fair weather city. It gets hopelessly deluged, or unbearably hot. Wonder why the British chose it as the seat of their operations in these parts.

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