I love summer!

It is eternal summer out here in India, if you ask me. Especially where I hail from, there is no other season. It is always hot, hotter, hottest. But summer, to me, always meant the time between March-June because of school vacations and other wonderful things. While the rest of India is sweating and suffering from intense heat, Bangalore is still heaven and it leaves a lot of room for enjoying the other delights of summer!

Jasmine flowers. The streets near my house have flower-sellers stringing fresh, fragrant malli and mullai buds. The fragrance is heavenly and it makes me remember happy things. I’ve been having a gala time of wearing mullai almost every day.
Mangos, mangos, mangos. The King of Fruits is in season now. Need I say more?
Jackfruit! For the first time after coming back to India (nearly 3 years now), I enjoyed the sweetest Jackfruit this summer. My elder son is absolutely crazy about it and we both blissfully dip the succulent slices in honey and make a good meal of it.
Summer showers. Bengaluru, thankfully, has a good dose of rain in the evenings after hot, sultry days. I love the smell of the earth after the first drops of rain drench the city. The cuckoos start singing, the trees look greener and everything just seems a bit more joyful in the world. A cup of hot masala tea and samosas are the way to enjoy these lovely evenings.
Ice cream. There’s a “Natural” ice cream parlor near our place. The flavors that they have are all desi — jackfruit, tender coconut, chikkoo (sapota), sitaphal, mango and much, much more. It is simply yum.
Kids. It is exhausting to have a 5 year old child at home all day with no school or summer camp or any other all-day activity. I made that conscious decision to have him at home. These days, even kids’ lives are so full of activities, engagements and non-stop entertainment that there is no mental space to be bored. Boredom is essential for thought and invention. So in a weird, convoluted way, I actually enjoy my son getting bored. He gets bored, stares up at the sky, sees the stars, muses about the sun, smells the mangoes and comes up with stunning insights that really blow my mind.

Here’s to many more such lovely summers!