From steaming cha and khichudi to books, Rabindrasangeet,
films, family games, creative rituals and the quiet pleasure of solitude—50
ways to make a rainy day at home memorable.
There are rainy days that make us look for an umbrella.
And there are rainy days that make us want to stay exactly
where we are.
A cup of tea. An open book. Music somewhere in the
background. The smell of wet earth drifting through a half-open window. Perhaps
a plate of something hot and crisp arriving from the kitchen. Outside, the city
grows blurred behind sheets of rain; inside, time seems to loosen its grip.
I have loved such days for as long as I can remember.
I was born in July, and perhaps that is why I have never
been able to regard the monsoon as merely a season. Rain has always been part
of my inner landscape. I remember dancing barefoot on our rain-soaked terrace
as a child, floating paper boats through waterlogged Kolkata streets, watching
clouds gather suddenly over the city, and coming home to the smell of my
mother's khichudi, beguni, telebhaja, fish fry and omelette.
There were no smartphones then. Streaming platforms did not
exist. A rainy afternoon did not arrive with an itinerary.
It arrived with rain.
And we made something of it.
That is what this list is really about.
Yes, you will find 50 things to do on a rainy day at home
here—books to read, films to watch, music to hear, food to cook, crafts to try
and activities to enjoy alone or with family. But beneath the list is something
I value more: the art of noticing.
Because a rainy day need not be filled from morning to
night.
Sometimes the best thing to do is simply to listen.
50 Rainy-Day Things to Do at Home
Tea, Food & the Comfort of Home
1. Make a Proper Cup of Bengali Cha
Begin with strong black tea, fresh ginger and, if you enjoy
it, cardamom or cloves.
In Bengal, tea is rarely just a beverage. It is an
invitation.
Cha hobe?
Shall we have some tea?
Those two words can begin a conversation that wanders
through childhood, books, cricket, politics, neighbours, family gossip and
everything else under the monsoon sky.
If you have an earthen bhar, use it. The faint earthy
fragrance of clay makes the ritual feel complete.
2. Turn Tea into a Monsoon Ritual
Don't drink your tea while answering emails.
Put the phone away.
Choose your favourite cup. Sit near a window. Watch the rain
for five uninterrupted minutes.
A ritual becomes meaningful when we stop treating it as
something to get through.
A little companion for your monsoon tea ritual:
A good insulated flask can keep your tea warm while you read, write or watch the rain.
3. Make Khichudi
If the Bengali monsoon had an official comfort food, I would
nominate khichudi without hesitation.
Soft rice and lentils, vegetables, spices and ghee—or
whatever version your household treasures—have a way of making a grey afternoon
feel immediately warmer.
For me, khichudi is inseparable from childhood.
The sky darkening.
Rain beginning.
My mother in the kitchen.
And the certainty that lunch had already been decided by the
weather.
4. Fry Beguni or Telebhaja
Few sounds announce a Bengali monsoon more convincingly than
batter meeting hot oil.
Slice brinjal for beguni, prepare onion fritters or make
potato and vegetable telebhaja. Serve them hot.
Then make another cup of tea.
This is not culinary sophistication.
It is something better: memory made edible.
5. Have Ilish Bhaja with Khichudi
When hilsa is in season, the monsoon table acquires a
special kind of anticipation.
Crisp ilish fry beside steaming khichudi is one of those
combinations that needs very little explanation to a Bengali.
The meal is the explanation.
6. Make a Fluffy Omelette and Crisp Papad
Some of the food we remember most fondly is not elaborate at
all.
A soft omelette. Roasted papad. Hot rice or khichudi.
The rain outside.
Family around the table.
Sometimes simplicity is what turns a meal into a memory.
7. Prepare Muri and Fish Fry for an Evening Adda
Crisp fish fry, muri and tea make an excellent rainy-evening
combination when family or friends drop in unexpectedly.
Don't plan the conversation.
That would defeat the purpose of adda.
Let it wander.
8. Try a Bowl of Soup
Not every rainy meal has to be Bengali.
Tomato soup and buttered toast, sweet corn soup, lentil soup
or a steaming bowl of vegetable soup can be exactly what a wet evening
requires.
Comfort has no single cuisine.
9. Bake Something
Rain makes kitchens feel unusually welcoming.
Try cookies, a simple sponge cake, banana bread or cinnamon
rolls.
The pleasure begins before the food is ready—the smell of
butter, spice and baking slowly filling the house while rain falls outside.
10. Create a Window Picnic
Who said picnics belong outdoors?
Spread a rug near the window. Put fruit, biscuits,
sandwiches, cake or homemade snacks on a tray. Add tea.
Then watch the rain.
A window can be a destination.
Books, Poetry & the Pleasure of Reading
Rain and books have always seemed to understand one another.
A rainy afternoon gives reading something ordinary days
often cannot: unhurried time.
Here are ten literary companions for different moods.
11. Read Chokher Bali
Rabindranath Tagore's Chokher Bali explores love,
loneliness, jealousy, desire and emotional awakening within the intimate world
of Bengali relationships.
Its psychological richness makes it particularly rewarding
when read slowly.
12. Return to Pather Panchali
Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's Pather Panchali is
deeply rooted in landscape, childhood and ordinary human life.
Rain, fields, ponds, trees and changing skies are not merely
scenery in Bibhutibhushan. Nature belongs to the emotional world of the
characters.
13. Wander Through Aranyak
If wet earth and greenery make you want to disappear into a
forest, choose Aranyak.
Bibhutibhushan's relationship with landscape makes this a
wonderful monsoon companion for readers who love nature writing and reflective
fiction.
14. Spend an Evening with Byomkesh
Rain outside. Strong tea beside you. A Bengali detective
story in your hands.
Saradindu Bandyopadhyay's Byomkesh stories provide precisely
the kind of quiet suspense that suits a darkening evening.
15. Read The God of Small Things
Arundhati Roy's Booker Prize-winning novel brings together
family, memory, social structures and the lush landscape of Kerala.
Its rain-soaked atmosphere makes it particularly evocative
during the Indian monsoon.
16. Read The Blue Umbrella
Ruskin Bond's The Blue Umbrella is short, gentle and
beautifully observed.
For an afternoon when you want something tender rather than
demanding, it is an excellent choice.
17. Pick Up Jane Eyre
Storms, windswept landscapes, solitude, emotional intensity
and a Gothic atmosphere make Jane Eyre an enduring rainy-day classic.
18. Read Rebecca
For a darker afternoon, choose Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.
Manderley, secrets, psychological tension and unease create
the perfect atmosphere for a day when the sky outside refuses to brighten.
19. Read Poetry Instead of a Novel
You don't have to finish hundreds of pages.
Read five poems.
Read one poem twice.
Read it aloud.
Then close the book and sit with it.
Rain is particularly good company for poetry because neither
asks to be hurried.
20. Read When the Earth Sang of Us
My own debut poetry collection, When the Earth Sang of
Us: A Meditation on Love, Life and Nature, grew from many of the
preoccupations that make rainy days meaningful to me: nature, love, solitude,
memory and the small moments through which life reveals itself.
One of my poems, The Sound of Rain, begins with the
idea of rain as a balm for an overburdened mind.
Perhaps that is why I keep returning to the season.
Music for a Rainy Afternoon
Rain already has rhythm.
Music gives it another.
21. Listen to Rabindrasangeet
For a Bengali listener, the monsoon has an extraordinary
musical vocabulary.
Rabindranath Tagore wrote songs that hold rain in many
moods—joyful, spiritual, restless, romantic and contemplative.
Try Aaji Jhoro Jhoro Mukhoro Badolo Dine, Esho
Shyamolo Sundoro or Je Raate Mor Duar Guli Bhanglo Jhore.
Let the rain outside accompany the music rather than compete
with it.
22. Listen to Bengali Monsoon Songs
Move from Tagore to contemporary Bengali music.
Songs such as Brishti Tomake Dilam and Anupam Roy's July
bring a more modern emotional vocabulary to the rainy season.
23. Put on an Old Hindi Rain Song
Few things are as immediately nostalgic as an old Hindi
monsoon song.
Try Rimjhim Gire Sawan or Bheegi Bheegi Raaton
Mein.
Some songs don't merely remind us of films.
They remind us of periods of our own lives.
24. Discover a Contemporary Hindi Song
If you prefer contemporary music, try Baarishein by
Anuv Jain or another acoustic Hindi favourite.
The important thing isn't choosing the "perfect"
song.
It is finding one that makes you want to look out of the
window.
25. Build a Three-Part Monsoon Playlist
Make three sections:
Morning: Rabindrasangeet and gentle acoustic music.
Afternoon: nostalgic Bengali and Hindi favourites.
Evening: quieter, more introspective songs.
You have now created a soundtrack for the weather.
🎵 Listen to My Monsoon Soundtrack
I created this monsoon playlist to accompany a slow rainy afternoon—music to listen to while reading, drinking tea, writing, or simply watching the rain.
26. Listen to an Entire Album Without Multitasking
This may be one of the more radical suggestions in a world
of endless scrolling.
Choose an album.
Sit down.
Listen from beginning to end.
No phone. No household task. No second screen.
Just music and rain.
For uninterrupted listening:
A comfortable pair of headphones or earbuds can make an entire album feel like a small private room of its own.
Movies for a Rainy Evening
A rainy day is an excellent excuse to turn the living room
into a small cinema.
27. Watch Raincoat
Rituparno Ghosh's Raincoat is almost inseparable from
the emotional atmosphere of rain.
The film's restrained performances, enclosed setting and
exploration of lost love make it particularly suited to a quiet monsoon
afternoon.
28. Watch Antaheen
For a Kolkata mood, Antaheen is an evocative choice.
Its loneliness, conversations, music and rain-washed
cityscape create an atmosphere that feels intimately connected with urban
Bengal.
29. Watch Tumbbad
If thunder and darkness put you in the mood for something
unsettling, Tumbbad offers mythology, horror, relentless rain and
extraordinary visual atmosphere.
30. Rewatch Pride & Prejudice
The 2005 adaptation combines romance with misty landscapes,
sweeping countryside and one of cinema's most memorable rain scenes.
Ideal for an afternoon when you want beauty and romance.
31. Watch Before Sunrise
If conversation is your idea of romance, try Before
Sunrise.
Two strangers walk through Vienna and talk.
There is no need for spectacular action.
Sometimes a good conversation is enough.
32. Watch Dead Poets Society
For readers, teachers and anyone who has ever found refuge
in literature, Dead Poets Society remains an emotionally rewarding
choice.
It is a film about poetry, friendship, education, courage
and the importance of finding one's own voice.
33. Solve a Mystery with Knives Out
Rainy weather and an old house full of suspicious people are
an excellent combination.
Add tea and pakoras.
Do not reveal the ending to anyone.
34. Enter the World of Shutter Island
For a psychological thriller, Shutter Island gives
you storms, isolation, uncertainty and a beautifully unsettling atmosphere.
35. Watch About Time
When you want something warm rather than dark, choose About
Time.
Beneath its time-travel premise is a tender meditation on
love, family and the value of ordinary days.
Creative Things to Do When It Rains
The monsoon has always made me want to write.
Perhaps it will make you want to make something too.
36. Write a Rain Poem
Don't begin with a grand idea.
Begin with one observation.
The sound on the roof.
A wet leaf.
A train disappearing into rain.
Steam above a cup.
A childhood memory.
Write ten lines.
You may discover that you have written the beginning of
something larger.
37. Start a Rain Journal
Write down:
What did the rain sound like today?
What did it smell like?
What did it remind you of?
Who did you think about?
What did you notice that you would normally have missed?
A rainy-day journal can become a record of a season—and
eventually a record of yourself.
38. Begin a Story from the Window
Look outside.
Choose one person, vehicle, tree, building or sound.
Invent a story around it.
What if the person standing beneath the umbrella is waiting
for someone who never comes?
What if the old house across the street has been empty for
twenty years?
What if the child floating a paper boat is carrying a
message?
Rain is generous to storytellers.
39. Sketch the Monsoon
You don't need formal artistic training.
Draw your teacup.
A rain-streaked window.
A plant.
An umbrella.
A tram passing through a wet Kolkata street.
The purpose isn't perfection.
It is attention.
40. Photograph Ordinary Rain
Look closely.
Raindrops on leaves.
Reflections in puddles.
Steam rising from tea.
Wet balconies.
A child's paper boat.
Light reflected on a road.
The monsoon makes ordinary objects briefly photogenic.
Simple Offline Pleasures
41. Rearrange Your Bookshelf
Take everything out.
Dust the shelves.
Rediscover books you had forgotten.
Create a small monsoon reading corner with the books you
most want to read.
Sometimes rearranging a bookshelf feels strangely similar to
rearranging one's thoughts.
42. Tend Your Indoor Plants
Wipe broad leaves.
Remove yellowing foliage.
Repot something that has outgrown its container.
Sit beside your plants for a while.
Rain has a way of making green look greener.
43. Finish an Unfinished Craft
Pick up the knitting, embroidery, crochet, painting or craft
project that has been waiting in a drawer.
You don't have to finish it today.
Beginning again is enough.
44. Solve a Crossword or Sudoku
There is something satisfying about a puzzle on a rainy
afternoon.
Put the phone away.
Make tea.
Solve a crossword or Sudoku at your own pace.
45. Write a Handwritten Letter
Messages arrive instantly now.
Letters make us wait.
Write to someone you love. Tell them something you might not
say in a hurried phone call.
For a handwritten letter:
A beautiful notebook or writing set can make the simple act of putting words on paper feel even more special.
Or write to your future self.
Put the letter away.
Let time do the rest.
Rainy-Day Fun with Children & Family
Some of the best rainy-day activities require almost
nothing.
46. Make Paper Boats
This may be the oldest monsoon entertainment I know.
Fold paper.
Find rainwater.
Launch.
When I was a child in Kolkata, paper boats disappearing
around corners seemed to possess entire destinies.
Perhaps that is why I still remember them.
47. Hold a Family Antakshari
Choose Bengali, Hindi or regional songs.
Divide into teams.
Sing until someone forgets the next line.
The rules can become increasingly flexible as the evening
progresses.
That is part of the fun.
48. Play Ludo, Carrom, Scrabble or Cards
Board games bring people into the same room.
No notifications.
No scrolling.
Just competition, arguments, laughter and someone insisting
that the rules have been misunderstood.
These are the things children remember.
49. Tell Stories Together
Ask everyone to contribute one sentence to a story.
One person begins.
Another changes the direction.
A child introduces a talking cat.
Someone adds a storm.
Soon nobody remembers who started it.
50. Create a Rainy-Day Memory
This is the one activity I would place above all the others.
Don't try to make the day impressive.
Make it memorable.
Cook something together.
Listen to an old song.
Look through family photographs.
Tell a childhood story.
Sit by the window.
Let the children ask questions.
Call someone you haven't spoken to in months.
A rainy day does not need to become an event.
Sometimes it becomes a memory simply because we were fully
present for it.
Rainy Day Alone: The Pleasure of Not Having to Hurry
There is another way to spend a monsoon afternoon.
Alone.
Not lonely.
Alone.
Some of my favourite rainy days have contained very little
activity at all.
I make tea.
I read.
I write.
Sometimes I meditate.
Sometimes I simply sit near the window and watch the rain.
There is a particular luxury in having nowhere to go while
the world outside is being forced to slow down.
A rainy afternoon can become a small retreat from the
pressure to be productive.
You can take a nap.
Listen to an entire album.
Organise one drawer.
Look through old photographs.
Write three pages without editing them.
Or do absolutely nothing.
The last one is underrated.
Rainy Day Romance at Home
Rain has always been generous to lovers.
But romance doesn't require an elaborate dinner or expensive
plans.
Brew Tea for Two
One person makes the tea.
The other brings the cups.
Then sit together near the window.
Cook Together
Make khichudi, beguni, pakoras or something neither of you
has tried before.
The mistakes may become more memorable than the recipe.
Read Aloud
Read a poem.
A few pages of a novel.
A letter.
Something you've written yourself.
Hearing familiar words in the voice of someone you love
changes them.
Make a Home Cinema
Choose a film.
Dim the lights.
Keep snacks within reach.
Let the rain supply the soundtrack.
Dance
Choose one song and dance without worrying about how you
look.
The rain has never demanded choreography.
Sit in Silence
Perhaps the most intimate thing two people can do is
nothing.
Two cups of tea.
Two people.
Rain outside.
Enough.
Adda or Solitude? Choose Your Rainy-Day Mood
Perhaps the most Bengali question is not What should I do
when it rains?
It is:
Who will I spend it with?
If friends and family are around, bring out the telebhaja.
Make tea.
Play Antakshari.
Argue about cricket.
Talk about books.
Tell stories that everyone has already heard.
That is adda—conversation without a destination.
In Bengal, adda is not wasted time.
It is a way of being together.
But if the house is quiet, don't feel obliged to fill the
silence.
Read.
Write.
Listen.
Meditate.
Watch the rain.
The monsoon accommodates both moods.
Perhaps that is one reason I love it so much.
It never tells us what kind of person we should be.
Why Does Rain Feel So Comforting?
There is a science beneath some of the emotions we associate
with rain.
That unmistakable smell after rainfall is often called petrichor.
One component associated with the earthy scent is geosmin, a compound
produced by soil microorganisms.
Rain also creates a relatively steady soundscape. The
continuous rhythm of rainfall can mask some sudden environmental sounds and may
help create an atmosphere that people find conducive to relaxation, reading or
sleep.
Then there is the behavioural effect of bad weather.
Grey skies, cooler temperatures and wet roads often
encourage us to remain indoors. The enforced pause can create an opportunity
for activities we might otherwise postpone: reading, cooking, conversation,
writing, music or rest.
But science doesn't explain everything.
It cannot entirely explain why one smell can suddenly
transport us to a childhood kitchen.
Or why a particular song can bring back someone we have not
thought about in years.
Or why the first rain of the season can make an ordinary
street look briefly like a different city.
That belongs to memory.
And memory has its own weather.
My Favourite Rainy-Day Ritual
If I had to reduce everything in this article to one
afternoon, it would look something like this:
A steaming cup of ginger tea.
A favourite book.
Rain against the window.
Rabindrasangeet playing softly.
Something hot from the kitchen.
A notebook within reach.
And enough time to let the afternoon unfold without asking
it to become productive.
Sometimes I write.
Sometimes I read.
Sometimes I simply watch the rain.
The older I become, the more I value those afternoons when
nothing extraordinary happens.
They remind me that a life is not made only of milestones.
It is also made of small recognitions:
the smell of wet earth,
the warmth of tea,
the sound of a familiar song,
a mother's recipe,
a book waiting beside the chair,
a child's paper boat,
a conversation that goes nowhere,
a quiet room,
and rain returning to a city that has been waiting for it.
A Monsoon State of Mind
I have often wondered whether I love the rain because I was
born in July, or whether July simply gave me a convenient excuse for loving it.
Either way, the connection has lasted.
Rain has accompanied my childhood memories, my reading, my
music, my poems and my writing.
In July's Daughter, I tried to capture some of that
lifelong relationship:
I was born into the weeping skies of July
in this part of the world
where the monsoon speaks
in a language only the soul understands.
Perhaps that is what a rainy day ultimately offers us.
A language.
One that does not require conversation.
A language of wet earth, leaves, rooftops, tea, music, food,
solitude, laughter and remembered places.
We spend so much of our lives trying to hurry toward the
next thing.
The monsoon occasionally asks us to stop.
To notice.
To listen.
To remember.
And perhaps, for a few hours, to be content with exactly
where we are.
What Is Your Non-Negotiable Rainy-Day Ritual?
Are you happiest with cha and telebhaja, a book and
silence, a favourite film, Rabindrasangeet, family adda, a romantic evening, or
simply an afternoon spent watching the rain?
Tell me in the comments:
What is the one thing you cannot imagine a rainy day
without?
And if this article reminded you of someone who loves the
monsoon as much as you do, send it to them.
Perhaps the best rainy-day pleasure is one that is shared.
About the Author
Susmita Mukherjee
Susmita Mukherjee is an Indian author based in Kolkata. Her fiction explores labour, resilience, displacement, family, and the quiet complexities of human relationships. A former teacher at Army Public School, she has also worked in IT education, corporate communications, hospitality education, counselling, and coordination roles. These varied experiences have brought her into close contact with people from different social and professional backgrounds, informing the attentive observation of everyday lives that shapes her writing.
A trained classical vocalist with a diploma in Multimedia,
Susmita has a longstanding interest in the arts. She has also studied painting,
explored screenwriting, and writes poetry alongside fiction.
Her work has appeared in Indian Literature (Sahitya
Akademi), Muse India, Fractured Lit, Sky Island Journal, Kitaab
International, Setu, Fictive Dream, Flash Fiction Magazine,
Literary Yard, Intrepidus Ink, Nanum Magazine, BULL Lit
Mag, Epistemic Literary Magazine, Gulmohur Quarterly, Literally
Stories, Shabdodweep Web Magazine, and other literary publications.
Her short story “Fuchka Geometry” won Second Place in
the Inkspot Short Story Competition 2025–26, judged by UK literary agent Kate
Nash. She has also received Second Prize in the 3 Minute Arts Story Writing
Competition 2025–26 and Second Place in a Flash Fiction Magazine contest.
Her debut poetry collection, When the Earth Sang of Us: A
Meditation on Love, Life and Nature, is published by BookLeaf Publishing
and is available internationally.
Follow Susmita Mukherjee
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Discover When the Earth Sang of Us
The poetic reflections on rain, nature, memory and
solitude in this article grow out of the same landscape explored in Susmita
Mukherjee's debut poetry collection, When the Earth Sang of Us: A Meditation
on Love, Life and Nature.
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