Being a bookworm on a rainy day means snuggling up comfortably with a hot cuppa and a book, preparing to immerse yourself in the fictional world. This monsoon, why not enjoy the rhythmic pitter-patter of the first rains and the essence of petrichor outside your window with books that capture the moods of monsoon? Paint rain-drenched fictional vignettes into your mind as you lose yourself amid the pages of a book. Here are five books to read this monsoon if you cherish the feel of the wet season with its rejuvenating downpours and refreshing greenery.
Rain in the Mountains: Notes from the Himalayas by Ruskin Bond
A collection of diary entries and essays by Ruskin Bond that tell of his experience dwelling amidst the petrichor-infused, foggy Himalayan foothills in Mussoorie, Rain in the Mountains: Notes from the Himalayas is a perfect monsoon read.
The author’s graphic delineatory skills allow readers to easily transport themselves to the rainy, misty life amidst the lush greenery of the hills, as he cleverly illuminates the close entanglement between local life and the rhythms of nature, especially the arrival of the rains, and depicts how the monsoon breathes vitality into the natural environment and community life in the Himalayas.
What makes the book a quintessential monsoon read is the author’s ability to not only depict flora and fauna drenched in the monsoon showers but also the aesthetic and spiritual enlightenment that one can derive by passively observing little joys in such an environment, whether it is relishing a hot cup of tea while watching nature’s monsoon miracles or feeling rejuvenated by glimpsing a sudden downpour that revives the dull surroundings to jovial greenery.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The 1997 Booker Prize-winning book follows Estha and Rahel, fraternal twins who end up traversing the untrodden paths of forbidden love for which they pay a heavy cost to a society full of rigid caste and social biases. Although principally dealing with the intertwining trajectories of personal and political tragedies, the story places the monsoon as the chief atmospheric and symbolic presence. The significant natural and societal impact of monsoon on the lush landscape in Kerala, including the overflowing river, the dampness of the soil, the mold, and vivid greenery creates a symbolic canvas where decay and evolution, grief and happiness coexist.
The ceaseless showers depict the conflicting emotions in the hearts of lovers walking the uncertain paths of forbidden love. If you love immersing yourself in intense emotional fiction where the natural backdrop adds to the rollercoaster of sentiments with its imagery, The God of Small Things is the perfect read for you to relish a monsoon full of joy and melancholy.
The Guide by R.K. Narayan
R.K. Narayan’s signature style, blending individual life experiences with universal commentaries on human nature and community, finds the truest expression in his 1960 Sahitya Akademi Award-winning novel. Full of dramatic upheavals, emotional rollercoasters and social vignettes, The Guide follows the unconventional love story of Raju, a tour guide and an unhappily married dancer, Rosie.
The novel not only deals with the notion of identity and multiple selves adopted for survival by economically helpless individuals, it also uses monsoon and the overreliance of rural farmers on it for their survival as an extended symbol to illuminate the sad yet crucial truth that for the absolutely defeated, hope is the only food for survival.
Escaping several unsuccessful careers, from tour guide to manager to finally a reluctant spiritual guru who pretends to control the weather by taking advantage of farmers’ helpless prayers for rain in the drought-stricken village of Mangala, Raju shows readers that identity is not factual or given by birth, it is shaped by circumstances and survival instincts.
As he fasts to bring rain to Mangala, and a flood arrives in the village at the climax of the novel, monsoon stands as a potent symbol of hope and redemption, as the lifelong keeper of appearances is proven to be a sincere spiritualist for the superstitious villagers. However, the closure is loaded with irony as the deeper truth of the universe’s fickle rhythms, irrespective of human prayer and strife, is revealed solely to the reader who cannot share in the villagers’ unadulterated joy and belief in Raju’s sincerity.
A Monsoon of Music by Mitra Phukan
Beautifully intermingling the intensely fluid artistry of Hindusthani classical music with the intensely felt natural rejuvenation brought to the earth by monsoon, this novel explores themes of ambition, artistic integrity and emotional upheavals in the culturally proficient Assamese town, Tamulbari.
As the protagonists — Vishakha, her music guru Sandhya Senapati, the music critic Nomita, and Kaushik Kashyap, the impresario — navigate the evolving world of classical music, the author’s sound knowledge of Indian musical history is revealed along with her deep connection to her immediate natural environment, the sights, sounds and seasonal rhythms of which enrich her writing with imagery and symbol.
To the musical journey of Vishakha, full of emotional and professional storms, the melancholy showers and energising downpours in Assam become vibrant backdrops and metaphors. From emotional surges to social transformation, the rejuvenating yet disruptive patterns of the rains in Assam shape the shifting mindscapes of the characters as they question relationships, challenge insecurities, remake their musical career and rearrange personal equations. The damp, old music rooms, the rhythm of rain meeting that of music, and the shifting hues of the sky reflect the diverse moods and emotions in the narrative.
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Chosen as the Best of the Booker by public vote in 2008, Salman Rushdie’s novel that blends magic realism with the political drama of India newly declared independent in 1947, follows Saleem Sinai, born at the exact moment of the declaration, whose fate becomes supernaturally aligned to the nation.
Monsoon figures as one of the central motifs of the narrative, depicted in the rich baroque style characteristic to Rushdie. The rains are not only natural embellishments to the story but an active and almost mythic force, replete with the potential to oppress, transform and bring fertility to barrenness.
Mirroring transformative moments for the nation and the political scene, the rains arrive as a symbol of excess and chaos in a post-Independence India, dissolving boundaries with its wrathful floods and disheveled downpours. The ‘growing pains’ of the newly-liberated nation and the inner tumult in the lives of its residents are made expressionistically eloquent through the machinery of monsoon in the novel.