🌧 Missing the first rain back in Hyderabad

It hasn't rained properly in Jeddah in the 6 years I've been here. I counted. Maybe 3 light showers. Last Friday it drizzled for 5 minutes and my whole office ran to the windows to film it. I stood there with my phone and felt a bit silly. It wasn't even real rain, not Hyderabad rain. Hyderabad rain has a smell that starts 5 minutes before the first drop. I can't describe it better. At home my mother started making pakodas the second the sky went dark. She didn't even ask if we wanted them. My father would stand at the gate with his tea, telling the neighbours how bad the roads would be tomorrow. Kids from our lane ran out in their school uniforms. Nobody stopped them till the lightning started. And then the power went. Every time. We sat in the dark, laughing, eating pakodas by torch. I know people there hate it. Waterlogging, traffic, auto drivers asking triple. My cousin sends me angry voice notes. She says I'd regret it if I stood in the water near Mehdipatnam for an hour. She's probably right. But I'd take that hour. My weather app says sunny and hot for the next 10 days, again. I've started watching rain videos at night. Some of them are from Hyderabad. One has a dog barking in it. If it's raining in the city right now, send me a short video. Even 10 seconds is fine. Old City, Banjara Hills, a terrace in Tolichowki, anything. I just want to hear it falling on a tin roof. I'll be back in 3 months. I'm hoping for at least 1 proper evening of rain in that window. Please don't tell me it'll all be dry by then. Let me keep that hope.

Hyderabad's rain has a vibe of its own, hard to compare to rain anywhere else.

Same here in New York, except our rain comes with a cold wind and nobody makes pakodas.