August has always been my favourite month. The air turns crispy, leaves change their colour and the sky becomes a luminous thick blanket that makes me blink and smile whenever i look up.
When i was a kid, August meant the changing of the seasons. It meant sudden rain showers, yellow petals littering the ground and walking to school with my shoes in my hands while my "gumbootu" kept my feet dry. And it meant puddles with brown leaves floating on their surfaces and the arrival of "dhondhooni moosunn", which is still my favourite time of the year.
I was fortunate to live in a home that had a lot of space we could run around in. And birds to feed and cousins to play with during the long year-end holidays. And the best part about August was that the year was ending and the remaining days would be filled with all of the above, the most important factor being; Rain.
So i really miss grey skies and the sudden downpours that used to be the norm this time of the year. Lately, every year is more brutally humid than the one before and the days are sticky and long.
Maybe it was the fact that i was seeing everything through the eyes of a child that i was oblivious to the evils of the world but it really was a better time.
I miss those vibrant Augusts that faded into stormy Decembers. I really, really do.
