''Raindrops keep fallin on my head''

The song by BJ Thomas ''Raindrops keep fallin on my head'' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss8_X2VvHZs was released in 1969, many years before I was born. In 2013, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced that the single would be inducted into the 2014 Grammy Hall of Fame.

So, lo and behold I found myself humming this very song one Saturday evening in Mumbai. Why? I had finished a lovely coffee session with girlfriends at Plate & Pint and was making a beeline for my car parked outside Vaibhav apartments. What should have been a quick 600 metre / 5 minute brisk walk ended up being a 10 minute stroll under Mumbai's open skies with raindrops that kept falling on my head!

With no umbrella, no plastic contraption or anything to cover my head or otherwise, I was very quickly getting drenched with the sharp showers coming head on. With the coastal road about 100 meters west, it was now a mush of rain, wind, dust and the occasional splash of water from the roads.

That's when I made a decision to slow down my gait, look up at the sky while also dodging any open potholes on the road, forget about any chemicals / toxins that might be in the rainwater and just keep walking while humming this song.

Those few minutes before my car appeared are beautifully captured in my psyche. The rain would just not stop, and physically I felt a complete surrender to the forces of nature. There were absolutely no thoughts that streamed through my consciousness except for the emotion of being present in the here and now.

A quiet realization that Mother Nature, even in bustling Mumbai, has the ability to make her presence felt and enable us to live in the moment.