Celebrities share their special monsoon memories!

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Being a football player since school, the best monsoon memories I have is of us playing football in the rain. During the monsoons, it was like a ritual for all of us. We would play at St. Andrews School ground or Duruelo Convent Ground or at St. Stanislaus. We would even book Priyadarshini Park in town or even play at Supari Tank ‘Laal Matti’ in Bandra. It was called Laal Matti because that ground has no grass and the field would get all mucky and red during the rainy season. There was more splashing in the water and rolling in the mud that was always more fun than actually playing the game. In the late 90’s Salman [Khan], Shah Rukh [Khan], Sanjay Dutt, Sohail Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Dino Morea, choreographers Bosco-Caesar, and many more other friends, would all come and play. It was all organised by Sohail Khan. I haven’t played it for the last few years, but the fun is essentially over now as most grounds are small and turf based so no rolling in the mud and splashing water is the true essence of getting an excuse to play football in the rain.

I don’t know if it’s a good or bad monsoon memory that I have. I remember the floods of 2005 and we all were stranded. I was coming back from a shoot and I got stranded so I had to live at my friend’s place for three days. As we had to put an episode on air, Ekta [Kapoor] had arranged school buses to pick up all the writers and everyone had to go to Sun And Sand to work. This was quite a memory. I was not very familiar with Mumbai at that time, and that was my first experience of Mumbai rains. Not sure if many people know about this song called Saawan Barse. This song features Sonali Bendre, so whenever rain comes I remember this song every single time.

There are many fond memories, but once I went to Ladakh on bike that experience was really awesome. It was raining as well as snowing in between. I really like to listen to Kaka’s (Rajesh Khanna was lovingly called by this name) songs, especially Libaas.

I do have memories from my childhood of playing in the rain with my siblings. But now, after finally falling in love, this monsoon has come with a completely different feel. Suddenly the rain is sounding more melodious and the breeze has been singing sweet nothings to my ears. Love is in the air isn’t this what the monsoon is all about? Funny I am asked this question because I have a new favourite monsoon ensemble now. I have been smiling, looking at Nargis and Raj Kapoor singing ‘Pyaar Hua Iqrar Hua Hain’ to each other.

Monsoon is my favourite season. There are just too many memories that I have with this season. When it rains heavily, I simply go to the balcony and watch it for hours. But one of my favourite monsoon memories in recent times would definitely be the one with my daughter and my doggy. I remember during Covid, when we were not allowed to step out of our houses, it was the first rain of the year and both my children were excited to enjoy it. They were so disappointed that I didn’t allow them to go down and play. After a while the wind changed direction and the rain started coming inside my balcony and that’s where all the fun started. We went out on the balcony, and I was enjoying coffee, while they were having the best of time playing in the rain. We even played a few of our favourite songs like ‘Barso Re, Cham Cham, Koi Ladki Hai’ and many more. They danced and I sat back and watched them enjoy the rain.