If you’re a Mumbaikar, then you might have lots to crib about in life & commuting when incessant ‘Paoos’ (in Marathi), ‘Baarish’ (in Hindi) or ‘Monsoon Mayhem’ (in simple Angrezi !) relentlessly descends on the Megacity and if the downpour starts on the long weekend and lashes you over the next week ! However, there are motivational quotes on the brighter side of the monsoon travails like “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass but about dancing in the rain ! ” That’s what many youngsters do on the seaside rocks of Bandstand or by drenching in the waves on Marine Drive, Bollywood style.
Why do we associate memorable parts of our childhood with nostalgia, the minute we think of rains. One reflection is of school and the essays on, yes, “A Rainy Day”. I recall that almost everyone had idyllic visions of the scene almost poetic in their discourse. In our themes, the ‘rains were not mainly in the plains’ (unlike in Spain !) but the poet in us would conjure the vast countryside scene with lush green flora awashed by droplets of rain as the cool moist air would be resounding with chirping of birds. Most of us would then turn into unrefined versions Keats and Wordsworth !
The other memory relates to the lines that someone playfully said ‘When life gives you a rainy day, play in the puddles !’. It would be sheer joy when heavy showers would force the school to close unexpectedly and we would spend the day left to our own resources. This would entail a lot of splashing and jostling in the puddles by the boys and would end with us paddling or swimming the roads to reach home. Parents, in those days, were more liberal with the ‘rainy day’ syndrome and couldn’t be bothered with our wet and soggy look. Rains were pure and getting wet was part of growing up !
That gay abandon with which rains were greeted seems a long time ago when nature was kind and unrevengeful. There’s an air of unpredictability and lack of preparedness and we’re beset in a state of emergency with the unprecedented cloudbursts over hilly areas and flash floods inundating everything in its way and posing great challenges to disaster management. When non-stop rains come with unrelenting force there’s a near deluge in the major cities with water-logging, flooding in low lying areas, roads brimming with pot holes, collapsing dilapidated structures.. The poor commuter struggles with traffic jams, stalled cars, inordinate delays in running of buses & locals. Not the ‘happiest of times’ !
Not being aware of the school curriculum, wonder what today’s children would write in the Essay on ‘A Rainy Day’. Maybe it’s no longer part of their syllabus !
Working on Living 