The difference...

I don't know what, but there is something different in the rain here than back home. Here, in this foreign place... yes it is still foreign to me after more than a few years, the rain does not come with the love that I felt in the Indian rain. The rain brings the same respite from the heat, similar floods and traffic jams as in India. What I can't seem to pin down is the reason why it feels so different. I miss the rhythmic noise it would make when it hit the roof of my house in India. Or the puddles it would make on the roads and in our college. How the puddles would make my monsoon clothes muddy! Yes we had monsoon clothes... clothes that would dry quicker, that would be easy to wash and that weren't as expensive! :) It would be a pain when it poured while I rode to college, but I prayed for the rain to come down as I rode back home. Of course I'd have to ride carefully and sometimes getting drenched wasn't so much fun with the dirty roads, but it was more than worth it when coming home. At home would be waiting a nice hot water bath and my mom waiting for us to finish cleaning before she made onion bhajjis and garam chai! One of the warmest feelings that I've had was watching everyone pour in at home as the rain poured on outside...
Also of course, meeting my husband (then my boyfriend) when it was raining had its own charm(?). People who've done it will know what word would be better there. Usually very choosy about what we should eat (rather where we should sit), we'd clamber into the nearest restaurant/cafe and pray that we got a good table - good here meaning where people won't be able to blatantly stare at you for being with a guy. People in cities do that too you know! The dullest of places would become romantic with the rain outside...
Here, now, I should be relieved when I see the rain outside and know that I have to walk to the covered garage, get into my car and drive to the covered garage at home, reaching the couch without getting a single drop of water on myself. Why am I not? I am thankful for all this, but I do long for the rain that could drench me, in and out!