India Journal 2006- # 73 - June 11, 2007- Monsoon Has Come!

1:20 PM....

MONSOON began about 15 minutes ago!!

Woke up this morning and it was hazy and overcast, no sun and definitely cooler than the last 4 days. As the morning wore on it happily looked like there might be a little rain to cool us off. At least it was not as stifling as the last few days. Did some errands and then met Joy by "chance" and we came to Nick's for lunch when the big black clouds started rolling in fast from the mountains. We figured it would rain a little and by the time we finished eating it would end and we could walk back even in a little rain.

Well, without warning, it started coming down full force...a real deluge...and at first everyone thought it would be enough to run under the tin roof outdoors, but it lashed at us from all sides and everyone just had to run upstairs and inside.

Powerful wind, globs of rain instead of rain"drops", and then hail. Like rocks...it was so noisy we could not hear ourselves talking to each other above the storm without shouting. This is truly the first monsoon rain of the season, even though it is about 10 days too early, but hey, everywhere in the world the weather is screwed up these days..

Maybe the next couple of days will be cool enough to do some walking before I leave.

We waited about 45 minutes and it seemed to let up a little and decided to make our way back ...I had just a short walk, and although it was not raining as hard and the wind had died down, I was soaked through in less than 5 minutes...but it was not cold out and actually it was quite nice. I rested in my room for awhile and hope it stays nasty like this for the next couple of days...much better than the heat for sure.

The rain has just started again but I am right across the street from my hotel and restaurant, so no problem...I was supposed to go visit a friend today at 6, but think I will call it off. Don't want to push my luck and find myself getting chilled from sitting at HER place all wet after getting caught in the rain on the way to her.

And maybe it will even be cooler in Delhi when I get there....we'll see in a few days.

Namaste
Jane