It's Raining...rain (back home)

In Bombay, there's always that one bad downpour during the monsoon. And we got so excited about it because we got the day off from school. To celebrate, we would go out to get wet in our parking lot. (An image of a boy in my building obsessed with action films 'fighting the rain' in a corner comes to mind).
Alternatively, we would walk along Marine Drive - the highway by the sea and get splashed by the waves. As we got older, nothing changed, except that we had cheap vodka with us.
After getting drenched, we would shower, dry off and sit and sip masala chai at our homes with the telly playing in the back, and stare at the city. At my house, Groucho would get curious, and then come and sit by me, and both of us would watch the rain.

Last night, because of the rain, my mom was stuck in her suburban clinic, while my dad was at home. Their staff spent the night at the offices. Other people have been stuck in cars, and forced to spend the night in traffic. But Bombay's spirit is undeniably compassionate. Random people are coming out of their houses with food to feed strangers who had to spend the night stuck in traffic. People are offering their homes to other people for the night. It's amazing how you don't realize how much of a family Bombay really is until you're outside the country.

*sigh* I miss home.

Ae dil, hai mushkil jeena yahan,
Zara hat ke, zara bach ke
Yeh, hai Bombay meri Jaan.

(Oh heart, it's hard to live here,
You need to move a little, save yourself a little,
This is Bombay, my life.)