When I think of rains, images conjure in my mind about soaked soil, lush greenery , flowers with water droplets, floating paper boats, wet roads, mysterious birds that appear in the monsoon, ginger tea, kanda bhajiya and so on. When monsoon rolls around, don’t you feel like humming songs - ‘lagi aaj sawan ki phir wo jhadi hai, wahi aag seene mein phir jal padi hai…' or 'bhigi bhigi raton mein , meethi meethi bato mein aisa lagta hai tum banke badal…' closing your eyes, with arms wide open, embracing each drop of the rain?

To me there is no other season  more romantic than the monsoon. It makes me sentimental, yearning and wistful because the onset of monsoon coincides with the reopening of schools and brings to mind the smell of the new books (fresh from the press) which evokes nostalgic memories of childhood days when trivial things like catching a glimpse of the rainbow and the colour of the rubber rain wear made us extremely excited.

Even today monsoon is the same, but  now, I find pleasure in long drives up a hill, sights of  water streams flowing down a hill, and stopping by tapris for ek chuski chai (A sip of ginger tea). When it’s raining cats and dogs out there, I love to grab my coffee, a good book and curl up and chill.. Monsoon has already hit my part of the world and I have decided to brush up on some of my favourite monsoon recipes.

 As we evolve, what was exciting for us at one stage or phase, of our life may not be so in the next. When you let go of an old hobby and try something new, you step into a whole new world . Therefore, I decided to take up various hobbies like doing up my house, DIY creative items, painting, gardening, blogging, and finally photography, as I didn't want my hobbies to lose their zing…

I am sure many of you would have gone through a similar phase but didn't understand or considered it idiosyncrasies . I would be delighted if you shared your experiences , especially about the monsoon

'Old is Gold'

In today’s world where everything is available at a click, it appears ridiculous to gather old items in your house but only the antiquary would understand the value of discarded items. I claim not to be an antiquary, but I revel in collecting unusable things without a thought at that moment but hoping to use it sometime later. I had a set of four sarees belonging to my mother with exotic and vibrant zari work. Having remained unused for a long time, the fabric was coming apart at the folds and thus it could not be used for wearing. But my emotional attachment prevented me from discarding the saree. I decided to use it in some way and one day it dawned on me that I could make use of the borders in making table mat/bed runners and cushion covers. The unique way I used it was got some designer Kurtis stitched for myself.

Beautiful Zari sari of my mum that got converted into designer Kurtis

 On one of my usual trip to sabzi mandi, cane basket caught my eye. Without much ado, I bought it at a throwaway price. On reaching home, I immediately envisaged the use for it. I would use  it as the base for keeping Knick knacks. But first I needed to improve its ordinary or raw look. I painted it with ordinary poster colours and pasted a beaded border salvaged from one of my old kurtis. I wasn’t surprised when visitors to my home got smitten by the traditional yet unique look of a mere basket. That’s how a little bit of creativity can do wonders without spending much.

 I loathed to tell you that I botched up on a set of new curtains that were intended for my living room. The tailor due to his ignorance, foolishness (I don’t know what) stitched two of the curtains in vertical patterns and one in horizontal. The look of it angered me so much that I refused to take delivery of the curtains. On second thought, I took it and dumped it in my wardrobe with a strong feeling that I would put it to good use. On one of my relaxed weekends, I noticed the curtains lying in my wardrobe. My anger has subsided and my creative side notice the beautiful border. As is evident from the picture above, the border got converted into table mat, bed runner (smiles)
 

Wine Bottle - As one would know comes in various shapes, sizes and colours. I found three of them lying on my terrace. I picked them up without knowing what I would do with them. In one of my pensive moods, I painted one of them with acrylic colour because of which its shape was accentuated. If a single colour could change its look so much then how much would a few accessory enhance it. I extricated some studded stones from my junk jeweller and pasted them on the lower half of the bottle  and was amazed at the sumptuous look of my creation. Have a look at it and judge for your own self. Mind you !! I am not advocating drinking wine to make an antique piece.