Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts

I love this country when it rains. It seems to come alive. I haven't quite seen this exuberance in any other place, where rains are normally struck down as bad weather. I remember when I went to Disney (California Adventure) in CA, crowds stayed away because it was drizzling. I wasn't complaining though, since I got the whole park to myself. The best part about the rains in Hyderabad are the mirchi bajjis, the onion pakodas, and the chat stalls that seem to spring up every where. You can smell them all over the place when you drive around. I also love to smell the earth. It is said, that only here in India the earth smells so good. I doubt if the scent is so border-discriminative, but there is something about the way the earth smells that conjures up a feeling of good life. It doesn't help though if you are trying to meditate on the chemical compostion of the water lapping at your feet. You don't want to know all the things that the rains washed away.

If there is one activity that I absolutely love doing in rains, it is swimming. I love how the water in the poOl feels warmer than the coOl rain drops tickling your back. It is a funny coOl feeling.

I was so facinated loOking at the lighting that I wanted to see if I could capture it with my teeny Sony DSC P10 ( and it took quite a bit of effort and time).

In this next one, there wasn't a single lightning streak, instead the whole sky seemed to light up as if day light.