Perhaps there is no season that is more pleasant than spring. Nature seems to have reserved the spring season to put its best foot forward. The days are not so warm and the nights are not so cold and the fragrance of flowers wafts through the air. When spring is in the air, it is fair weather all around.
During spring, nature presses its refresh button. It is a time for rejuvenation. Fresh shoots of leaves emerge on the branches of trees in multiple hues—yellow, red, brown, green, and so on and so forth. Plants are busy spreading a carpet of green which has a soothing effect on the eyes. Flowers bloom in all sizes and shapes in vibrant colours spreading a riot of colours. Birds build nests and prepare for a new brood. And, animals begin their courtship to carry forward their lineage.
Monsoon is synonymous with love and romance. Like monsoon, spring too has been romanticized by poets, writers and artists alike. While monsoon has been used to great advantage for shooting romantic scenes in Indian movies, flowers in bloom, courtship of birds or animals, and such other symbolisms are used to portray romance during the spring season.
The most visible signs of spring are the colourful flowers that bloom all painting the city in the rainbow colours. How can we forget the bunches of laburnum that hang from the branches of trees like bunches of yellow grapes; or, the pastel shades of purple that adorn the jacaranda; or, the reds of the coral tree and the silk cotton tree; or, the multiple hues of roses that bloom during spring? Some of the flowering trees shed their leaves completely when they are in full bloom and the whole tree paints itself in the colour of its blooms without a single patch of green. Laburnum, Jacaranda, eastern redbud, magnolia, fringe, silk cotton, and forsythia trees represent such flowering trees. What an elevating experience to be treated to such a wonderful sight?!
Monsoon shares a whole lot of similarities with spring. Fresh leaves appear on trees and plants and there is a lot of greenery in the city during monsoon as well as spring. Flowering trees and shrubs that bloom during spring experience a second flush and find themselves in bloom in monsoon once again. Some of the birds that fail to reproduce during their first attempts in spring, or lose their newborns, give it another try during monsoon. In any case, the waterfowls breed mainly during monsoon so that there is sufficient food for their chicks.
There are many more similarities between spring and monsoon. Interestingly, the word monsoon was first used in English in the Indian context!
Monsoon is like a hyphen between summer and winter just as spring is a hyphen between which ushers in winter just as spring is the hyphen between winter and summer. In other words, Monsoon is the transitional period between summer and winter just as spring is the transitional period between winter and summer.
I personally believe that there are only two seasons—winter and summer. Spring and monsoon are just transitory phases. To my mind, the clothes we wear are tuned to seasons. Broadly speaking, we have warm clothes that are suitable for winter and light clothes that are used in summer. Besides these, we may use a rain coat during monsoon. But raincoats do not form clothing by themselves. They are used to drape over winter clothes or summer clothes depending on which part of the year we use them to ward off raindrops. And, there are no specific clothes meant for spring.
Even the temperatures at many places are similar during spring and monsoon. It is probably the temperature levels and pleasant weather of spring and monsoon that is responsible for triggering the romantic mood among all living beings and set into motion the process of rejuvenation that begins in spring and monsoon.
For all intents and purposes, there seem to be only two seasons in the real sense of the word season’— summer and winter. To me, spring and monsoon are just two transitory phases which facilitate the change of season. So, could we possibly consider the monsoon to be a second spring?
