Memoir: The Monsoon and Mangoes

The only time I check the weather forecast on my phone is on the sunny days of the summer season. Tarai region(meaning ‘the flat plain land’) of Nepal becomes very hot during summer. Frankly, I would say, it can be a little Venus of itself temperature-wise.

It was one of those sunny days, I was already a bit irritated by the hot temperature of the day that was causing sweating in a way that, I would say, I was having a rain shower. To make my day worse, it started a feeling of a headache too.

I was constantly checking the weather forecast and eagerly waiting for the rain. By the mid-afternoon, I lost my patience and became so snappy that I started walking around my house in search of some cool breeze. If you are thinking of what about turning on a fan, then let me tell you, a fan is just a machine that provides you those hot breeze on the faster version only. Table fan might help a bit but a ceiling fan wouldn’t much.

By 4 pm it started to rain. My happiness went up to a degree of celebration. I was never been that happier I realized. I sat near my window for an hour admiring the rain gifted by mother nature.

I suddenly realize something was wrong with me. Self-questioning poured into me, ”Why you are being so excited about rain? Did you always love rain this dearly? Isn’t the juicy and sweet ripe mango only the thing you like about summer? Why are you ditching mango today?” I tried to go down memory lane to think of what I like about summer, is it mango or is it the chilling rain?

In a trice, I remembered my early days while I was in grade 5. I will give you a little flashback of one particular day.

It was one morning of monsoon summer days. When I woke up I realized it was raining outside. I was again a bit irked but this time it was rain to make me so. My school was quite a distance from my home. Since there had not had a school bus transportation facility or any public means to commute, I and my friends from the village used to bike to school. So I would be in my worst situation if I have to go to school amidst the heavy rain on a bicycle, carrying an umbrella with one hand and balancing the cycle with another hand. There were days in my life when I, my bag, and books would fully get wet by the time I reached school. And there was something called a ‘raincoat’ that I didn’t like wearing. Maybe I was a little anxious about how it would be looking me in it. As it is normal that as a kid you get easily embarrassed by many things out of nothing. I remember how I used to hate those rainy days. Rain was not my favorite thing then? Maybe Yes!

We used to have one mango tree beside our house. Every summer my mom used to make jars of pickle of raw mangoes. I wasn’t fond of either of those pickles or the ripe mangoes.  Once in a while, I used to try them but never found them as ‘wow yummy’ for my tastebuds. Well, I didn’t really hate them but I usually wouldn’t care about them.

After some years I moved to a new school where they had a school bus system and I stopped caring or worrying about rain. I don’t have any memory of hating rain or loving them. One day that fruit-yielding mango tree was no longer standing there. It was cut down, hopefully for some good reasons. My mom stopped making those pickles and there were no ripe mangoes anymore for me. While I was craving for those mangoes I would tell my father to bring some for me from the market. And he did. I would enjoy it wholeheartedly. From that day on till now, summer for me is always for enjoying juicy mangoes.

All this turbulence of summer memories of the past is going around my mind while sitting near the window and admiring the rainfall happening outside. I was eagerly waiting for this rain since I woke up this morning.

I realized I wasn’t really fond of none of the two; mango or the rain. I was never fond of those mangoes which I used to think was the only best thing of summer then and I was never fond of that rain which I was loving so dearly and admiring it in those days. What am I fond of then? A good question to find the answer to yet.

I went to the kitchen, grabbed some mangoes from the fridge, and started to gulp them sitting back next to the window and looking at the rain. What would I be looking for next summer monsoon?

Dipika Adhikari

The writer is a final year student pursuing her Bachelor’s Degree in zoology from Central Campus of Technology, Nepal.