I don’t know about you, but if I was a little younger at heart, I would be joining these crazy, adventurous people engaged in teasing the gigantic waves angrily lashing Mumbai’s seafronts on stormy days like the city is currently experiencing. The weatherman has scaled down his weekend’s Red Alert. It is now Orange. But there’s going to be more torrential rain. More squally winds. Higher tides. Advisories urging people to stay away from the sea.
The weatherman has never quite understood Mumbai’s relationship with the monsoon. For us, this isn’t merely bad weather. It’s theatre. When the Arabian Sea sheds its calm summer manners and becomes magnificently wild, untamed and gloriously alive. The rain comes riding in on towering waves crowned with white foam. Black thunderclouds on its tail. A restless wind bends the coconut palms along the coast as though they were blades of grass. Fishing trawlers and tiny dinghies bob in the harbour like toys floating in a bathtub.
Enthused by the rain and wind, the waves come charging towards the city like a 100 metre Olympic sprinter straining for the finish line, only to meet the seawalls and giant tetrapods that stand guard along the coast. For a moment, the sea appears to rebel. It rears up angrily in towering sheets of white before exploding over the promenades, drenching roads, parked cars, lamp posts — and anyone brave or foolish enough to be standing there. That, of course, is precisely why they come.
This is terrific sport for all those waiting in defiance of the weatherman’s warning. You can almost hear the laughter as strangers wait for the next giant wave, then scatter in every direction at the last possible moment, only to regroup a few seconds later, soaked to the skin and grinning like children who have just escaped being caught. For them, it is less a battle with the sea than a flirtation with it.
There was a time when I, too, would have stood there daring the Arabian Sea to do its worst. Today, I am happier watching with an admiration for Mumbai’s irrepressible spirit. The sea offers us some of the city’s most spectacular monsoon moments, but it also deserves our respect. Its moods can change in an instant, and every year it reminds us that nature always has the final word. Until then, Mumbai will continue doing what Mumbai has always done. Flirting with the waves. And dancing in the rain.
About Mark Manuel
The above thoughts/content has been proudly copied from the wall of Sir Mark Manuel. Being interviewing almost every role model of this country and going stronger each day. Mark Manuel is a respected Mumbai editor, writer, and columnist.
With over three decades of journalism in leading publications. This includes the Free Press Journal, Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Mid-Day, and Afternoon. He is famous for his brilliant pen interviews. He himself is a TEDx speaker.
Further
His interviews have featured in several leading media houses. They include the Hindustan Times, Huffington Post, BBC, and Network 18. Almost every famous person has been interviewed by him in the country from Mother Teresa to Muhammad Ali. His first book is just out. It’s titled Moryaa Re! It is a crime thriller that is perhaps the country’s first police procedural. He began his career covering crime. And in a tribute to his experience and knowledge of this beat.
Several distinguished officers of the Mumbai Police and its Crime Branch collaborated with him to make this book possible. Amitabh Bachchan wrote the forward in a statement of friendship for Mark Manuel and admiration for his work.
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