The suffocating intensity of Mumbai's October heat has been like a blanket this year. Every cab ride begins with, "Garmi ne jaan le li hai" and such mutual commiserations. One time I said, "I don't know if it's really hotter this year or I'm just older and feeling that way." "No, ma'am," said the driver, "It is hotter. Don't be affected by things Modiji says." We both laughed out loud.

Like those shared city laughs, there are other gifts of October all around us. Like water chestnuts glowing purple and green in wet piles, ushering in other autumn-coloured vegetables, purple yams and banana flowers and blushing sweet potatoes. On my windowsill, hibiscuses are making fools of themselves, blooming like foolish love and falling all over each other; and pink roses are plumply budding. Cassia trees seem hectic with their touchable pink and fleshy flowers. Saptaparni trees are sending out that Charmis cream smell, beckoning with their lacy bunches of flower petticoats, telling cooler days to come hither. Behind the gate of the mysterious nun's cloister on Mahakali Caves Road, frangipanis are peeking, rich creams and warm pinks, as if miniature paintings lurk behind those gates. As if to underline the season's fertile efflorescence, marigold chains are embracing every car and shopfront on Dussehra.