What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.' I used to assume this was the thing people too stupid to get a real education [i.e. management graduates] spouted only to annoy the rest of us normal folk. I know they are never referring to Nietzsche when they say it, because they trot it out after every tragedy, big or small. It continues to crop up on WhatsApp groups too, whenever someone passes away or when the government makes us all unemployable with inane experiments like demonetisation. I think it should only be used during the monsoons though.

I think of the monsoons with anger, rather than the joy so many of us welcome it with. I used to experience joy too, a few decades ago, safe indoors, knowing I wasn't required to go out into the world to make a living. That was my father's role, so I was free to welcome the rains simply because I didn't have to deal with it. All that changed when I entered college and encountered my first rain-related crisis. I don't remember the year, which doesn't matter because you can pick any year you like and relate to the experience. What I do remember is being soaked to my skin, wading through waist-high water the colour of mud, praying for a train that took half a day to arrive.