Kerala — June 1–3, Onset
The first rain after three months of waiting.
The earth exhales. The temperature drops six degrees in an hour. Children run outside before their mothers can stop them. The smell of petrichor is the smell of relief.
Forty-two degrees. The city is a furnace. People stop talking. Dogs lie flat. The sky threatens but does not deliver.
The first crack in the sky. Then the wall of rain arrives from the sea. Everything becomes sound. You can't hear yourself think and you don't want to.
Steam rises from hot pavements. The streets smell of earth and green. The trees are darker. The air is softer. Everything wants to grow again.