Thanks Amanda @ Something To Ponder About (https://forestwoodfolkart.wordpress.com/) for this! Hosted by Something to Ponder about and The Snow Melts Somewhere (https://thesnowmeltssomewhere.wordpress.com/), Friendly Friday Photo Challenge has been something that I look forward to every week now…thank you both!

    This week’s challenge made me realize, sadly, that I have never photographed raindrops. And I had to wait for a couple of days to rain and the when it did, it was the middle of the night or really early in the morning – not an ideal time for me to take pics. Bright sunshine followed the rain that made everything look so pretty but it also dried up the raindrops!

   I must say that I am not a huge fan of the rain. I think I should clarify here a bit- When I say I d this, I don’t mean I hate rain or don’t realize it’s utmost importance in sustaining life, in nurturing Nature. And I love to watch the rain fall… I am a normal human! I just don’t like the feeling of having to be outside in the rain, of the incessant rain that makes things feel damp, the gloomy sky that is, most of the times, associated with rains. Maybe it has something to do with my childhood days, I am not sure. Growing up in India, June through September was rainy season and it rained a lot. Many streets got flooded, especially the ones leading up to my school and that used to be a terrible experience for me on days when school would be open. I had friends who loved the rain, I guess most children do, but I never understood what was so awesome about getting drenched. I loved the school closings though!

   What I loved however, was how everything smelled after the rain,; how the grass and the leaves on the trees dazzled; how the hue of the brown soil got richer. Making paper boats with my younger brother and letting them sail on the water logged streets in front of our house is another fond memory as is eating onion fritters on rainy evenings. We did not have a car but some of our neighbors did and I remember, sometimes, drawing outlines on the window panes of those after a downpour.  And I remember reading this beautiful poem, I even remember how it made me feel – How Beautiful Is The Rain by H. W. Longfellow. I think this was the first poem on rain that I read at school, that has remained a favorite to this day. Isn’t it fascinating how we remember seemingly trivial things from long ago while forgetting matters of much recent past?

   I plan to make ‘raindrops’ my photo project, of sorts, in the coming months and I am looking forward to sharing those with you!