Ask anyone whether they ‘Like rain’ and more than 90% of the answers would be ‘Yes, I like rain, I enjoy rain, I love rain’- I am surely one who falls into this category – sipping hot coffee with friends, eating hot spicy food and chatting along while you hear and smell the rain outside is something I would always rejoice! However there are a second set of people who could add on the fact that Oh! It’s so messy after it’s rained; I don’t quite enjoy getting drenched in rain when I have to get to some place or if I am in a hurry. There are also a third set of people who says ‘It doesn’t affect me, I am not quite bothered whether it rains or not’ and so on.
Rain can mean different things to a lot of other people too. For the office goer’s it would mean a nuisance if it rains just at the time they need to leave home or leave for home from work, for the school kid, it’s a joy who can play in the puddles, get the clothes and shoes wet, perhaps very heavy rains can also bring them an unexpected holiday; For the street vendors, it’s a blow on their business, as it might force them to close down the shop for the rainy day. For those who have organized an outdoor activity, event, a function it’s a cause of tension – what if the shelter is not good enough, what if people drop out of the plan of attending, what would happen to all the food, where can we make alternate arrangements, for the sports freak especially a cricket fanatic, it would be a missed game, a missed day of fun, on the other hand for the person whose home is the very street, he would be swept off from his home.
For most of us accustomed to city life, it doesn’t quite matter whether it rains on not as much as the farmer or that individual who is dependent on it for his day to day life. For them, rain would be a blessing; they would pray for it and would be overjoyed and relieved that it did rain. Of course, we city dwellers might get to realize it only when it’s too hot, or there are too many power cuts, the cost of vegetables are way too high and when little issues creep in. It would be out in the news and can also become a topic of discussions – especially when you are with a group of people who you are not acquainted with.
It’s interesting to see the turn of events when the skies cry…. You can see the dogs on the street just running at a slow pace trying to get shelter, but also at the same time not quite bothered about getting wet, the cows who remain so unmoved from their positions, birds flying from tree to tree….On the other hand, you can see the vendors hurriedly covering their cart full of things, women running to get the washed clothes hung outside (which had almost dried up until this happened), old men/ladies retiring with a cup of hot coffee/tea by the window sill, kids trying to sneak away and play in the rain, a group of friends talking about having hot fried food and coffee at their favourite restaurant or café and monkeys hanging from a Mango tree and trying in their so many human like ways to cover themselves…these could be amongst many other things you might have noticed.
The smell of rain is a much loved thing to most people who enjoy rain, the smell of mud, the smell of the garden – the washed leaves of trees, plants and flowers – all of them looking clean and green, the smell of hot corn on the cob, the smell of hot spicy food by the street where people who wanna have a quick grab, the people coming out once it has stopped and having a chat together, the noise of the street businesses resuming, some people working on cleaning up the havoc caused by it, everyone getting back to their activities…….The after effects need not be always good….if one doesn’t pay attention while walking along the street, they might end up with a shower of mud and rain water, the slippery roads can be quite horrible, the flies in the evening is the most and the only annoying aspect of rain that I remember. It can also be in the news or the next day’s morning paper if things have gone pretty bad…..Nonetheless, the whole cycle ends and routine begins again until the spell of rain starts the sequence of events on yet another day… a morning of shower, an afternoon of quiet rain, an evening of heavy rain, or a downpour at night…..
