back to blogging!

So back into the full swing of thing! The holidays are a mere scent of a memory and my life here in Chennai is rushing headlong ahead.
The monsoon rains are pelting down, as I write, in a steady thrum and the constant flashes of lightning and crashes of thunder are vaguely threatening. I can't help but think of those so much less fortunate than I - sitting out in the cold, pouring water, drenched to the skin and shivering. I am here in the warmth, feeling dry and secure. Until you have got soaked to your skin, and felt the sheer power of a monsoon downpour, you can have no idea what this means. The first year I was in Chennai, I helped to organise a Trick or Treat for Halloween. Parents drove their kids from house to house in their cars, drivers waited, and the kids jumped out, collected treats and jumped back into the cars! I thought this was shocking, until at 6pm (start of the event) I was standing at the end of the road directing cars and handing out maps and felt the first of a million, gazillion huge raindrops start to fall on my head.
FJ (a then, newly-made forever friend), sent her driver to give me an umbrella and I had an old Wimbledon plastic poncho in my car. Nikh was safe in FJ's house with her and her kids, handing out treats. I was under attack - tipping down rain, thunder and lightning. Within minutes, I was soaked through to my underwear, couldn't see for the sheer curtain of rain streaming down past my face and I started shivering. Who knew that the water directly from the heavens would be flipping freezing! Temps 10 mins before had been about 34C and suddenly I felt as though I had stuck my body in a freezer for an hour! Unbelievable!

I was struck by Mother Nature's power - like a woman on PMT with a loaded gun, she was firing wildly! I recall thinking then that we need to appease her, we need to do something to change the way her fury is unleashed with ever more force, ever more aggression and with more frequency. She seems to be letting us know that whatever we try and do to her planet - she can do sooo much more!