Exploring Fort Kochi In The Monsoons

My plane window frames a hazy picture -- grey swirls of mist, suffused with a pale afternoon light, which reveal fleeting glimpses of a steely blue sea below. As we descend, slicing through a swathe of thick rain clouds and emerging beneath them, there is a dramatic change of view -- a velvety carpet of brilliant green flecked with sloping sun-baked roofs. Then, moments later, a tiny rivulet of water begins to course its way across my pane. It's joined almost immediately by another stream, and soon the world outside is obscured again, this time by a thick sheet of rain.