A magical monsoon

Its raining now. Big fat drops race down from the sky in wanton recklessness. All around me is this wet,pulsating green. The rain in Kerala appears alive in a strangely magical way... it has an untamed personality all its own.

Here, there are so many ways of soaking up this season of feverish fertility. When trimming Amma's precious hibiscus bushes - a monsoon ritual- a fat kingfisher caught my eye. I watched as he sunned himself by the river, fluffing out his brilliant feathers to look like a crazy blue ball. A split second later he nosedived into the dark green water and emerged with a silver struggling fish in his beak. Hopping with the ecstacy of victory he whipped his prey on a rock till it stopped dancing, and then happily gulped it down whole. The entire exercise could not have taken more than a minute.

Casper appears to enjoy this season as much as I do. He makes it a point to drag me through the deepest and muckiest puddles he can find. This evening he charged madly into an empty plot in his quest for frogs, but pulled up short when he found himself confronting an enormous cow. She was watching over her calf that was romping in the slushy plot, and didnt appreciate the intrusion. She turned towards Casper with an ugly look on her usually serene face and waded through the knee-high water towards us. Casper the Lion heart didnt wait to see any more.He turned around and scrambled out of the enclosure, dragging a wet, squealing me along.

I'm sitting by my bedroom window now listening to the rain crashing outside. Its getting chilly and I reach gratefully for my steaming mug of hot chocolate. And toast the destiny that tossed me into this corner of the crazy world.