I wake up to the sounds of raindrops falling. I wish the rain would stop soon. But till now it hasn’t. Yet another rainy morning which will mean taking umbrellas and watching our step carefully during the morning drop to school. Rains in Madras were/are a rarity and any heavy rainy day meant a school holiday. Rain in Singapore is almost an everyday occurrence and there is no way any routine activity will be stopped because of rain. Singapore, nowadays, is surprisingly pleasant too in the early mornings and during rains.

There was a time when I might have enjoyed this kind of a pleasant weather, but, nowadays, I don’t really seem to be enjoying it most of the time. Especially not when a full load of clothes are waiting to be washed in the washing machine! Rain translates to managing children with their umbrellas when outdoors, walking on wet floor which in some places turn out to be slippery, clothes hanging out to be dried ending up with musty smell and not feeling fully dry, children locked up indoors and missing their outdoor play time which automatically translates to extra screen time and so on.

There was a time when any rant of this sort eventually ended up with me tracing it all back to missing Madras. Today, while I still continue to root for my life back in Madras, I have come to terms with reality. You just can’t have it ALL in life, can you?