Springtime in Calcutta

How do you know its spring in Calcutta? You hear the koel (cuckoo) warbling for all it is worth. I just heard a koel singing and for some reason it made me smile. Whenever I hear a koel, I am reminded of KGP. In KGP where there are many trees and calm, silence and peace, in the springtime and especially if you had a garden with papaya and/or mango trees, there was a good chance of waking up to a koel's trill. I can't describe those spring mornings well enough. The morning is cool and when you open the door, the pink and gold of the first sunrays rush inside your room and touch everything and make them seem richer and brighter. You walk out into the lawn and your slippers and feet get wet with the dewdrops still glistening everywhere. You walk to the trees where the koel is still singing and you look up and you see her playing hide-n-seek in the leaves. One moment you see the papaya-thief and one moment you don't. Then suddenly, you hear a quick rustling of leaves and the koel flits into another tree and starts trilling as if mocking you to find her again. Then when you are biking down to the swimming pool, trying to avoid crushing all the laggardly snails still on the road, you hear the koel again and you wonder, is it the same one that played hide-n-seek with you? When you're resting at the shady end of the pool, watching the light gold sunlight playing on the surface of the pool you hear the koel again and it makes you smile because you know summer has started. Summer with its vacations. Summer with mangoes. Summer with early morning swimming. Summer with the koel singing for all she is worth and you smile an dive in once again and swim underwater and think how unbelievably beautiful the world seems with a thick film of water inbetween.