The sun is up high and the mercury is still making its way to the top. My favorite time of the year is here. There is a stickiness in the air and conversations start and end with complaints. It brings the best and worst out in people.

What is Summer?

Summer means discovering new ice creams to fall in love with. It means laughter and a heartbreak or two. Summer is for books to discover and worlds to travel to. Some of my best reading days involve lying under the fan on a hot summer afternoon and feeling the trickle of sweat along my spine.

Summer means mangoes and sticky fingers. Watermelon juice trails and watching the ants. Summer is for complaints and more of them. Summer meant watching the sky for dark clouds and waiting for big fat pellets of rain. It meant getting wet in the rain and falling sick. I have a love affair with summer. I complain and whine but I do love summer.

My love for summer is probably a leftover from the school days. Summer meant hanging around in the garden and eating freshly picked guavas in those days. It also meant reading the editorials in The Hindu and writing letters to friends. Summer is a time to be me and watch life roll by. It was the time to be bored.I wonder if kids these days understand the joy of boredom. I sure didn’t understand it then.

As I waited to pick up kuttyma after school earlier today, I realised that summer 2016 was all around me. The grass was green and the trees were no longer barren. The nests were complete and advertisements for swim classes were up. Wildflowers had wilted away and the weeds were winning the battle.

It is my season to paint the world red and green and pink and orange with a few dabs of browns and blacks and greys too. Summer of 2016 is going to be a summer of dreams, sweat, glamour and new beginnings. I will share more of my summer as I zip along.

Happy Summer 2016!