India, Sept. 5 -- Come September, the season of maple leaves and modaks, a teacher of life lessons, arrives. In its own right, in its every signature sight.

Some sights are sure to announce the advent of September as certainly as mangoes do the summer, jamuns do the monsoon and so on. September, the harbinger of that hanging-ness, between loss and gain, between hope and pain. The month of all-consuming loss at the departure of dear Chausas. The month of hope as rosy as the Kinnauri and Kashmiri apples beginning to burst from Blinkit bags or pheriwallahs' thelas.

The month of mourning the mogras, amaltas and gulmohars as they rent the air with their requiems. The month of rebirth as chrysanthemum saplings flash their first signs of life ...