Monsoon musings

Rains are back in Kerala.
I don't really understand why, at this time I am more passionate to write more about rains than anything else.
I was just immersed in thoughts about what to write and the two main concepts to write about were about my beloved departed cousins and monsoon and nothing else!
I have already written about monsoon and the activities which I was obsessive about during this time of the year and it is nothing but sleeping by hearing the sound of rain water trickling through the trees.
My mother's family house is near a reasonably big river called Manimala and she always use to tell us about the rains and floods there and how they enjoyed their childhood during monsoon. They can only travel from their house to the main road during that time on small boats which they call Kothumbu Vallam. They had a small boat which they used for the flooding season and it used to sit idle during the rest of the year off water. She use to show us something called Koodu which is a trap used to capture freshwater fish. They use it more often in monsoon season as the chances to capture huge fishes are more during this time
In Muttom, where my father's family house is, we had the opportunity to be there for two years during our childhood days and monsoon have left me with some memories over there too. We had a big pond in the property and during monsoon time, the pond gets full to the brink with water. The main fun associated with this was that the chorus of frogs starts their musical ensemble in the night and that creates a great symphony! My mother still hates this frog cry and she mentioned her irritation to this sound during our chat some weeks ago. We had a family who use to rear ducks and for the forthcoming months till September or October, we will have ducks in the pond enjoying their fresh baits. I also have remote memories of turtles being in this pond and I have seen them few times. It is sad to say that that pond was filled totally and that area has become the front yard for our new family home in Muttom. But still I think that it would have been more interesting to preserve that pond and have all these biological friends of ours to share their responsibilities in that pond during the monsoon days. As this place is a low lying area, the proximity of flooding was more and during monsoon season, wherever we dig, water use to slowly fill the pits and this was a fun to watch during our school days.
Please don't think that I am going to stop writing about monsoon and rains. This instinct about rains may start disturbing me again during next year and you may find something on rain for sure. Even if I am enjoying everything that I can in this century, these are some of the things which I miss and let me make it clear that nothing can replace those memoirs……