And then, as suddenly as it came, it begins to leave. The clouds thin, revealing a sun so clean it hurts to look at. September brings a second bloom—white cassia flowers explode along highways, and the air smells of wet marigolds and frying chillies. The land, drunk on water, sighs.
It begins not with a drop, but with a promise. For weeks, the sky over Kerala is a tense, bruised grey, the air a heavy, wet blanket. Farmers tilt their chins upward, city-dwellers check their apps, and the koyal bird calls from a parched mango grove. Then, one afternoon, the first fat, cool splat hits the dust. It smells of earth and eternity.
This is India’s real New Year. The cracked, straw-coloured earth turns emerald overnight. Paddy fields become mirrors reflecting a frantic sky. Children sail paper boats in ankle-deep gutters, while chai wallahs see their tin cups empty a little slower. In Kerala’s backwaters, a lone fisherman sits motionless, his palm-leaf umbrella a small island in a grey universe.