Of Flaming Gulmohar’s, Sticky Sweet Mangoes, a Lot of Heat, a Little Bit of Rain and the Reason for My Disappearance

It’s been far too long and a lot has NOT happened and I have been lazy. And so, today I decide to blow the dust off my blog and tell you all about it.

May in Delhi has been brutal and the only things capable of making me smile, (other than air conditioning of course) and especially when I’m in the office on an oppressively hot day, is the sight of a Gulmohar tree laden with scarlet blooms or that of a tiffin box (obviously not mine) filled to the brim with cool and sweet and juicy mangoes, cut up in perfect bite size little cubes! 

                       

Being stung by the heat there was nothing to do all of May and there were moments when I would look mournfully at my blank calendar and want to burst out crying. There were days where, while sitting locked away in my cool and dark air conditioned room, I longed for a couple of days in the hills. Away from this suffocating heat, where I could sit with my hair falling down my shoulders without the back of my neck getting damp with sweat and enjoy a steaming, hot cup of chai, spiced with cinnamon and cardamom while I read Ruskin Bond, surrounded by silence and mighty green Deodars and look up to see cool, blue hills in the distance.

And then after weeks and weeks (or so it seemed) of slowly being cooked alive by the wretched heat, one afternoon, fat, grey clouds gathered in the sky and it rained! Not a lot, but enough for me to do a happy little dance while I felt the rain on my face and arms and saw fat droplets splatter and crash against the windshield – the bright, red brake lights of the car in front of us illuminating the drops, making them look like sparkling pieces of rubies scattered across the glass!

Continuing with the cheerfulness, yesterday I attended a wonderful bloggers meet up lunch hosted by Westland Books at the Punjab Grill, where we met to discuss author Manreet Sodhi Someshwar’s latest thriller, The Taj Conspiracy, set against the backdrop of the Taj Mahal. Manreet is a lovely person and an excellent conversationalist and it was absolutely wonderful to get an opportunity to hear her talk about the book, the research involved and some interesting trivia on the Taj that came as a surprise! 

By the look of it, this is turning out to be a rather wonderful weekend and today evening I shall be heading to Landmark Bookstore in Vasant Kunj to hear the legendary and very prolific and delightful Ruskin Bond speak! I’ve heard him speak on a couple of occasions and was extremely charmed by his sharp wit and easy humour, a lot of which you find in his writing!

And so, hoping that the rest of the summer is slightly more kind to us, I shall go back to turning on the AC, dimming the lights and returning to a basket full of books that I have ordered from Flipkart, that lie waiting to be read.