Rains and Sunshine ...

My daughter, Mickey has a very conflicting relationship with rains. She loves the rains and thunderstorms – but the rains seem to disappear in the city she lives in! This story has repeated in the 15 years of her life. . So it was not very surprising that this year, Alexandria which normally has copious rains in Dec-Jan, suddenly seemed to have a very unusual dry, winter. During her Xmas break from school, having already spent a week at Alex without any rains, she would nag me daily asking for the heavy rains, she had seen during the first year here. I could do nothing much. Seeing an opportunity for a longish four day weekend coming up in the first week of January, we decided to take a break and make a trip to Beirut. I managed to obtain the visas and booked exorbitantly priced, last-minute flight tickets. Booked the hotel on the Internet, only one day before we were supposed to leave. I felt really pleased with myself that I could make all the arrangements for the trip in less than 7 days. The night before we were supposed to leave, I started browsing the Internet to plan the tour at Beirut. Out of curiosity, I checked the weather forecast. And that's when I got the shock of my life!! Since this was a last minute planned trip, clearly the Rain Gods were not aware about Mickey's trip to Beirut. The forecast indicated heavy rains and thunderstorms with 90% chances of precipitation!! I announced this to the family in a shocked and agonized tone. In spite of the ear phones preventing sound waves reaching her ear drums, Mickey seemed to read my lips and jumped up screaming, "Rains? Poppa, did you say thunderstorms?” Mickey's parched countenance suddenly appeared to resemble a rose garden, glowing and radiating. I looked at her with disbelief! "Does she not understand? How can she be so happy, that a family vacation would be spent in a hotel room, if it rained?" I made a mental note that we should speak to her school psychiatrist, once school reopened. I really had no choice. Since all the bookings were not refundable, we had to go ahead with the trip. I had the same feeling like a pilot who had to take his plane right into the thunderstorm, since there was no other alternative. And although, I have immense faith in miracles - I knew, it would be impossible for me to have the rain gods postpone their showers in Beirut - because if they did, probably the multi-million dollar weather forecasting industry would suffer a collapse. And with the world economy in such dire straits, I did not want to plunge it deeper into a crisis. I decided to sacrifice my vacation fun and not pray for miracles! But my wife, Benita, having been soaked in my omniscient discourses of "Positive Thinking" and Rhonda Byrne's "Secret", wanted to demonstrate that it can indeed deliver and dispel the dark clouds which were probably already gathering on the Mediterranean, miles from Beirut. So here I was, buffeted with Mickey's desire to have thunderstorms during the vacation and Benita's pragmatic and stoic wish that we have sunshine. Rain or Sunshine, was the question that dwelt on my mind, when we boarded the Egyptair flight to Beirut. When we landed at Beirut around noon, it was a gorgeous, beautiful day, as the weather pundits had predicted for the first day. We checked in and then went for a lovely walk, exploring the Corniche and later in the evening, were dazzled by the beauty of downtown Beirut. After savouring some delicious Lebanese cuisine at a cafe, we returned to the hotel. A glorious day indeed, but my thoughts were on the next 2 days! I spoke with the front desk about our plans for sightseeing. Fully aware of the bad weather forecast, neither they nor the car rental agency was pushing too hard. We were probably the only tourists in Beirut, on this expected stormy weekend. Nonetheless, I went ahead and booked the car and the agency gave me an unsolicited 20% discount, empathizing with our unlucky situation. Looking out of the hotel room window, I could see dark clouds gathering outside the horizon. Soon, there was a visible drizzle and by the time we went to bed, we could hear thunderstorms, much to Mickey's glee. I don't recall how many times I woke up to peep through the window blinds and also to check the latest weather forecast on the Internet. I finally fell asleep around 4 am, reconciled to the fact that the day would be a washout. When I woke up in the morning, I had a pleasant surprise, it had stopped raining. Although, it was overcast with grey clouds, the morning sun rays were peeping out behind a few clouds. Energized with this, we quickly had our breakfast and set out to the Jeita Grotto. We spent about an hour and a half in the amazing caves filled with stalagmites and stalactites. While walking out from the caves to our car, a slight drizzle began. And soon after, our entire enthusiasm got dampened with the heavy downpour that started. The sky was black and the raindrops created large drumbeats inside the Mercedes taxi. The next 2 events planned were outdoors and I realized we may just drive through and head back to the hotel. We reached Harissa and bought the tickets of the teleferique to take us to the top of the mountain, to the “Lady of Lebanon” church. And then again, a miracle happened! It abruptly stopped raining and bright sunshine burst through the clouds. We pulled down the windows of the cable car, to have a glorious view of the sea, the mountains and the city of Beirut. We then walked up to the church, basking ourselves in the brilliant sunshine, with two rainbows appearing in the horizon. We drove down to the heritage village of Byblos and spent a couple of hours walking amidst the ruins and the cobbled stones of the village. No sooner had we finished our visit to Byblos, the rain started coming down heavily again and we headed to the restaurant by the sea, for a late lunch. It rained all evening on our drive back to the hotel and the rest of the night. It was indeed a miracle - that it rained almost the entire day - but stopped for those many hours in between, when we were outdoors. We had really, thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the day. I had no clue what to do the next day, because no amount of positive thinking could change the forecast. Precipitation of about 50 mm was forecast (compared to 10 mm today) with thunderstorms. We cheered ourselves up by telling each other, that it would be fun to relax and lounge in the hotel room all day.... but within our hearts, we were not convinced. Just before breakfast, I went to the travel desk and impulsively booked a taxi to go the historical place of Baalbeck. The driver was not willing to go Cedar Forest, since he was apprehensive that the impending storm may bring snow and the road would be closed. We set out on this 2 hour drive which was so beautiful ...it was drizzling in between … as we started climbing up the mountains, the swirling mist kept draping the mountains in various shapes, which was a feast for the eyes. And then suddenly, much to our astonishment, we saw some white patches on the mountain we were in ...it turned out to be the season's first snowfall and we were right in it!! Mickey had asked for only the rains, but was so thrilled with this unexpected bonus of snow!!  We got off the car and Mickey made her first snow ball!! When we reached the ruins of Baalbeck, it was still drizzling. We were the only tourists in the magnificent ruins. A guide accosted us and took us on a tour, telling us the history, while we held on to our umbrellas with our numb and freezing hands. Listening to the history of the Romans and Pagan worship, seeing Cleopatra’s statue and other remnants, in the biting cold of 4 Celsius was an unique, fun filled experience. We started driving back, with a lot of anxiety, since the locals predicted that the road back to Beirut was likely to be closed due to the snowfall. But we made it before sundown and treated ourselves to a delicious lunch in an Indian restaurant, ‘Al Hind’. Exhausted and with our every sense totally satiated, the three of us exulted in the hotel room, while packing our bags, as to what a perfect holiday it had been! It is not the rain or sunshine that is the reason for our happiness … it is how we feel inside that makes the external circumstances irrelevant! I had believed in this before – this trip only reinforced it. Mickey enjoyed her rains and a special snowfall, Benita, her sunshine and mountain mist … and I the pleasure of seeing both of them so happy. Miracles do happen … it only depends on how strongly one desires it!