I’m thankful for yesterday’s rains. They lowered the temperatures. Although, it’s been raining on and off here, it hasn’t been cool. In fact, before and after the rains, it’s been hot and humid, leaving me feeling like a shrivelled raisin, sucked of all its moisture.
It’s funny how much of an influence the weather has on us or at least me. I had been feeling restless and uninspired all of last week and I wondered why. I came up with a number of reasons which may have had an impact on me slightly. But, today, as I stepped out for a walk on the wet street covered in the colors of autumn, the breeze on my face, all those reasons I had dissipated and my heavy heart lightened, rising miraculously with no effort from my side. And I knew it was time to write again. What better than participating in Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday challenge which I had been putting off because of the inclement weather. The challenge is to write a syllabic poetry on the season.

I used the words, autumn rain (aki no ame, all autumn) and remaining heat (zansho, early autumn) from the kigo list.

1) Autumn rain, welcome.
Summer's remaining heat washed.
Parched heart rejoices

However, as the rule is to use one season word, I wrote the second haiku using Autumn rain. I hope I got it right.

2) Autumn rain, welcome
Summer's leftovers washed out
Parched heart rejoices

Here’s a picture of a little door of the new book library in the park. You guessed right- I’m participating in Dan Antion’a Thursday Doors challenge, and this was my way of sneaking in.

At least that’s what I thought when I had just this picture of a door but my daughter came to the rescue and sent me two pictures of doors that she took.

And she sent me this picture of a wall with grafitti

Last but not least, we celebrated the festival of Onam last Saturday. The harvest festival was celebrated in Kerala on the 20th August, but in Dhaka, we celebrated it only on the 30th of September. I assume the reason was that the organizers got the chef all the way from Kerala, and he may have either been too busy during the season or must have been expensive during the festival and soon after. We attended the festival held at Dhaka boat club because I wanted to get a taste of it in Dhaka. The ticket cost was 1500 Taka per person. There were dances, music and lunch. Here are a few pictures I took of the event.

Onam is the harvest festival that celebrates the homecoming of the mythological king of the land, Mahabali. Despite being the Demon king, Mahabali was said to be generous and his era was said to be one of prosperity in Kerala. If you want to know about the story, you can read it here.

As per the custom, food was served on a banana leaf. Traditionally, 26 to 28 dishes are served. While the food that was served was tasty, the number of dishes was not more than 12. I especially enjoyed the payasam, which is a dessert made of jaggery, coconut milk, mashed lentil, and roasted bits of coconut, cashew nut, and raisins. I had two of those cups (you can see the size of the cup in the picture above). Then, three hours later, I was in the gym unsuccessfully trying to burn it out. But, that’s the story of my life. My younger daughter’s given up on me. She says, “I need sugar when I’m stressed, and I need it when I’m happy.” That is the sad truth. Last night, I had a bowl of ice cream because I wanted to celebrate the weather and the sweet memories of my hometown that the sound of the rain on the windowsill brought back.

Before I end this post, I do want to say that I understand that the constant rains are a trouble for those in the low-lying areas in Bangladesh, which are prone to flooding. I hope it doesn’t flood, but I do hope the cool weather continues. That’s all for this week’s Thursday doors. I’ll be traveling next week for a week. I hope to fill my treasure chest with more pictures of doors and share it once I’m back. Before I go, I need to complete a painting, read a book, and share a review. Gosh! I feel like I’m constantly racing against time. And that, too, when I don’t have a job. It makes me believe there’s something seriously wrong with me. Anyway, until next time, bye. I leave you with the below thought.

Here’s a link to my debut novel, Coming Home, in case you want to check it out. And if you’re in India, this is the link. If you enjoy a story on love, life, loss, relationships and family, then this is for you. ‘Coming Home’ is available on Kindle as well as Paperback. It’s free for KUL subscribers.

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