We associate memorable parts of our childhood as much with the nostalgic smell of the alma mater and friends as with the black leather shoes we’d get wet & soggy in monsoon months, much to the chagrin of our Mothers. Someone good had playfully said ‘When life gives you a rainy day, play in the puddles !’. In those days of 1960s, it’d be sheer joy when heavy showers would force the school to close unexpectedly and we’d spend the day left to our own resources. With no classes we could return home but it was wasting a chance to play ‘wet’ football with friends and get drenched to the skin !
For the younger kids, it entailed a lot of splashing and jostling in the puddles and they’d end the morning paddling their way back home. Parents in good old times were liberal with the ‘rainy day’ syndrome and couldn’t be much bothered with their boys and girls getting wet and soggy. It evoked minor admonition and prompt change of dress. Getting wet in the rains was thought to be healthy, good for the skin and a part of growing up !
Another reflection of school days were English essays to be written on age-old topics like ‘The Village Fair’, ‘Railway Platform Scene’ or ‘A Rainy Day’. We recall that almost everyone had idyllic and romantic visions of the rains. In our themes, the ‘rains were not mainly in the plains’ but the poets in us would conjure misty mountains and picturesque countryside with lush green flora awash with droplets of rain as the cool moist air would be resounding with chirping of birds after a shower. Many of us would turn into versions of Keats and Wordsworth ! For all of us rains were God’s gift for we were taught that much depended every year on good monsoons for crops and livelihood of the farming community as also to usher in cooler climes and major festive seasons.
Much has altered but most of all has been the phenomenal ‘climate change’, not just for different parts of our diverse country but globally across countries. Now we’re beset in a state of emergency vis a vis water management on one side and devastating floods on the other. Global warming has hit Europe and there’s acute shortage of drinking water being felt in many parts. And as it happened in North India this year, when rains come with fury there’s a deluge in major cities with water-logging, flooding and collapsing of dilapidated structures all around. Poor residents are rendered homeless and commuters struggle with pot holes, traffic jams, stalled cars, slow buses and water on rail tracks.
Not aware of modern academic curriculum, we wonder what would be written about ‘A Rainy Day’ today. It’d be more on disaster management than about playing in the rain !
Working on Living 