The onset of Winter

Winter is my favourite season. Always has been. The colder it is - the more I love it. Yes, I am also very susceptible to the cold, and the nails on my hands and feet regularly keep going blue, I continuously live with cotton wads in my ears so as to protect my throat from a throat infection etc etc. But I still love the season. [Dare anyone ask about or make fun of the cotton-in-ears thing. If you've never heard of the connection b/w ENT - go read up!!!]

So... getting back to the point...every year I waaaaiiit for the first signs of winter. Usually, a definitte chill in the air just before Diwali and the sun not making too much of a difference to the crackers that you despareately try and get nice and dry before diwali night - is the first indication. Then in places like Ranchi and Bokaro, there's the annual tradition of getting the warm clothes out of storage and putting them out in the sun to air them and make them wearable for the season. Then next to our house in Ranchi.. there is this tree which flowers just before winter starts and the flower has a sickeningly sweet smell. The smell in many ways heralds our winter. Then ofcourse is the fact that all the monsoon insects start dying out slowly and your home becomes yours again.

Then, as winter proceeds, I wait for the water to become so cold that it physically hurts to touch it, I wake up early to catch the early morning fog and then waking early is no longer necessary - the fog continues into mid-day, I wait for the fog that my breath creates every time I open my mouth, and I wait for the warm, bright colours that comes out of everybody's wardrobes in winter. Winter seems a laidback time. The world is sleepy, nobody really wants to do anythign except drink hots cups of chai and eat pakoras and bhutta. :-)

None of this is true in Bombay (or Mumbai for those very particular). And I knew to expect it. I fully expected to hate my fiirst winter here. But apart from the fact that my office seeks to recreate winter everyday...I have discovered to my intense surprise, that winter has it's own charm here. The air loses it's overpowering humidity, the merciless sun almost becomes a friend and you begin to enjoy the warm glow of the pre noon and late afternoon sun, and because you don't expect it, the cool early morning air and the smell of winter that it carries with it, seems extra wonderful...The beginning seems promising. Will have to wait and see if the 'bright colours and the lazy winters' bit follows...

High hopes did I hear you say? Ah but I am an eternal optimist...