A girl crosses the Dak Bungalow crossing in Patna on Wednesday afternoon. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Residents of the capital on Wednesday afternoon found a cool cause to rush out of their homes — to get drenched in the first long spell of shower of the season and treat themselves to lip-smacking chaats and golgappa.

“We waited pretty long this time. The summer this year was unbearable. The rain gods played truant in the past few days. Despite predictions of an early arrival of monsoon, the cloud cover arrived only on Monday. I didn’t want to miss the first rain this season. Therefore, I came out on the streets the moment it started raining,” said Sunita Mishra, a resident of Gardanibagh.

If the professionals were happy because the temperature had finally come down, the roadside chaat sellers were ecstatic as they expected to do brisk business after a long dry spell.

Many youngsters, especially college students, were seen in a jovial mood.

“As it was cloudy, I carried an umbrella to college on Wednesday. It started raining when I was on my way back home. Some of my friends had umbrellas, but surprisingly, no one took them out, rather we decided to walk down to Boring Road crossing. We ate ice creams before taking a rickshaw,” said Alpana Sharma, a student of AN College.

While some walked and danced in the rain, many others thronged at the eateries. They made beelines at the chaat and golgappa stalls at Mauryalok. “Barish mein to market pura hara ho jata hai (We make good business during monsoon),” said a chaat stall vendor at Mauryalok.

The rains brought good news for most, but several commuters faced difficulties, as they were caught unaware in the showers. Many motorists were seen underneath the trees on Bailey Road waiting for the rain to stop.

Initially, it appeared that the showers would soon turn into a downpour, but after 20 minutes, the rain weakened. The hour-long rainfall, nevertheless, brought a much-needed relief for the citizens.

Weathermen have assured that residents can enjoy such light to moderate rainfall in the next two-three days.

“Wednesday’s rain was a result of low-lying cloud cover over Patna. The maximum temperature on Wednesday was 37.1°C, two degrees above normal. Light to moderate rainfall would persist over the next two to three days. There is also a possibility of thunderstorms,” said Ashish Sen, director (radar), of India Meteorological Department (IMD).

Sen added that the humidity level is pretty high because of the prevailing overcast and rainy weather conditions.

The southwest monsoon has made no progress since Tuesday. The evening bulletin of IMD, Delhi, said the northern limit of monsoon was passing through Veraval, Navsari, Malegaon, Betul, Seoni, Ambikapur, Gaya, Patna and Raxaul. The position was the same on Tuesday.

Sen added that the reason behind the non-advancement of monsoon was the development of a cyclonic storm in South China Sea.