The longing first comes at last light, not in the high heat of noon.
This is the hour when windows are closed to keep deadly mosquitoes at bay, the hour when breeze must be compromised in service of safety. So it is to live in the plains, where summer’s scorch and winged assassins, together, wake one again and again through the night. But it is not night – not yet. Now, it is the liminal time described as “crepuscular”, a word that evokes the nature of moths, and other creatures and beings of the in-between. The day’s torpor still clinging to one’s skin, the heat’s strain on the mind, and a parchedness that has less to do with water and more to do with unspoken feeling, and that is how one feels too: in-between.
There is a reason why this longing comes at this hour, and not sooner. Something about dusk, its changing colours, feels reminiscent of cloud cover. This longing, the longing for summer rain, is stark when it feels like the longed for may be near, may be almost – almost – here.
Summer rain that arrives preceded by a moody sky, stirring anticipation before it. Summer rain that arrives with an orchestra – the sounds of strings of rain drops falling on many surfaces. Rain on tin roofs, on umbrella vinyl, on window glass, on dense foliage, on hot tar, on hardened soil, on other water. Some of these sounds are almost silent. Each is surely distinct, depending on proximity or buffering, yet there is only one sound in my memory. I can hear it now, in my head.
There is a particular way the body responds when rain is percolating in the atmosphere, a pleasurable tension. Sultriness of air, sultriness of body.
Sharanya Manivannan
Sharanya Manivannan is a writer and illustrator, and her books include The High Priestess Never Marries, The Queen of Jasmine Country and Incantations Over Water. She’s a mermaid who loves the mountains, and at Coonoor & Co she creates pieces that are about the rhythms of nature and the heart, and she helps other creators craft their contributions.
AJ Mallari
AJ Mallari straddles the confluence of product, space, and systems design as a consultant focusing on holistically outfitting design-led initiatives with heavy leanings on craft and artisanal production to reach their creative goals. He has worked across South and Southeast Asia facilitating workshops, teaching, conducting research, and managing creative interventions while ticking off a shortening list of must-see places. He recently moved to the Visayan Islands after finishing further studies in Belgium last year, he currently runs a start-up creative practice while teaching design at the local university.
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