Have you ever seen the monsoon clouds arrive, somewhere between the months of May or June?

Unless you are from Kerala, you may not know what I am talking about.

Before I moved to Mysuru, I had no idea of the beauty of the arrival of monsoon. Till then monsoon was just another season of the year when the rains come and raincoats and umbrellas make their annual appearance.

Monsoon clouds are formed deep in the Indian ocean, and travel many kilometers to reach the shores of India with clockwork precision. But have you ever wondered, why do they come only to Kerala?

Indian summers are hot, we know that (duh). The intense heat of the summer days heat up the land all over India so much that the air above the land too becomes hot and expands. When the air expands, it raises above. The space left behind by the raising hot air is quickly filled up by cool air. This cool air in turn gets heated up and raises. This cycle continues throughout the summer and makes the air above the entire India to have a low pressure. The rule of nature is to fill up the areas of low pressure by winds from high pressure. The monsoon clouds are pulled toward the Indian peninsula by the low pressure created above the land.

The monsoon arrives at the tip of our peninsula, divides into two parts. One going in to Arabian sea and the other entering the Bay of Bengal. The monsoon then spreads across the whole country over the course of three months.

That is the science behind monsoon winds.

But the beauty of the arrival is a song of the heart, the yearning of a parched soul and the hope of life.

Monsoon hits Kerala and within a day or two, it hits Mysuru. Its arrival is a poetry in motion. I have seen it arrive, sometimes early, sometimes late but breathtaking every time.

View from my balcony just before a downpour

My balcony (which has lent itself to my blog name) faces the east and my view of 180 degrees includes the famous chamundi hills. The water-laden black monsoon clouds come from the south west direction and slowly occupy the bright blue summer sky from one corner to the other. The weather changes from hot to cool in a matter of minutes and the anticipation of a cool rain raises the mood of my heart. I sit in my jhoola and watch the rainbow forming just before it starts to rain and then vanish as the downpour begins.

The smell of the earth when the first rain hits the ground is the most heavenly. Did you know it is called “petrichor”?

Over the next few days, the clouds keep coming from the southwest. Not every cloud that comes in opens up. Some of them seem to be in a rush to go somewhere. I see them move away towards the north east very fast. It feels like the thirsty rest of India is calling the clouds and they want to keep that date.

Carrying a liter or two of water in a bottle becomes a burden after a few minutes but the clouds carry tonnes of liters of water and dance in the sky. This really fills me with wonder and amazement.

I marvel at the beauty of God’s creation and His eternal love for His creation. The feeling of thankfulness of being able to witness this every year fills me with gratitude.

The arrival of the annual monsoon is an event not to be missed from my balcony.

I’m participating in the monthly blog hop called #WordsMatter hosted by Corinne, ShaliniR  and Parul

This month the theme is “When it rains”.

42 talented bloggers tag each other in turn to write on the theme. I got my tag from Sulekha Rawat who blogs at sulekharawat.com and I pass on my tag to Ramya Abhinand who blogs at meotherwise.com

Have fun reading all the blogs of this blog train and enjoy the rains!