schools has always signified hope and despair for pillai at the same time he keeps a hawks eye on some 45 gardeners as he cycles around we plant seeds in february and the seedlings are transplanted to bigger pots now it brings back nostalgic memories when i would run to school with a banana leaf over my head get soaked to the skin in the fields with my father search for tadpoles in streams and rivulets play with paper boats as rainwater dripped off the roof no mumbaikar leaves home without an umbrella these days for murtaza unjhawala 27 who runs a small office of interiors in the fort area of south mumbai the monsoon spells trouble year after year hes even contemplating leasing out his plot to cooperatives many a time especially before an important presentation my brand new shirt has got mucky from all the water splashing from potholes he says both are important for a good monsoon he says its a difficult time for us admits barman it has been so for 38 years as he tends to roses money plants and jasmines with the same loving care as amelias chandnis and jatropas pillai reaped a good harvest from his one acre paddy field just before the monsoon advanced most customers are ignorant of plants and just want those with flowers and fruits in it he says wryly some spoiler this rain with some 1500 varieties of plants this is chaudhurys empire our concerns are more basic just surviving says janardhan barman a fisherman in barpeta a district which has seen the ravages of floods this 67yearold in keralas rice bowl is a contented man show biz it is in nurseries too the rains are welcome of course and even as the sky darkens with billowing blueblack clouds and the wind gathers ferocity the first pendulous drops of rain herald different things to different people gardeners are also kept on their toes as customer footfalls increase now indoor plants are very popular and so are exotic varieties heres what the monsoon means to a paddy farmer in rainsoaked kerala an officegoer in submerged mumbai a gardener in verdant delhi and a fisherman in floodhit assam and though the water percolates down plants are constantly watered as we dont know when the water supply will stop he says i travel on my bike they know that if it rains heavily during hightide its better to either leave on foot for home or stay over in office says unjhawala though the paddy was ripe acute shortage of harvesting machines and farm labourers left fields flooded though it produces about 206 lakh metric tons of fish the demand is for more than 226 lakh metric tons i love the rains pillai says candidly that the rain has become a nuisance for the new generation who cant stand either the mud or the sun