By Paramjit Bakhshi
Somebody once said, life is a tale told by an idiot. It has no meaning. Well I must add that life on days with incessant rain, then ought to be a tale told by a drunken idiot. There is even less you can do with it. On days when the sun goes into exile, the rain plays havoc with our spirits and spoilsport with our everyday plans, the most sensible suggestion the internet has to offer is, “let’s cuddle on a rainy day, watch old movies and make out.” Am I being scandalous? Of course I am. As you sit at home, reading and rereading today’s paper, and getting bored under the grey and wet sky, it is a writer’s job to cheer you up, with a line which brings at least a smile on your lips, and perhaps a mischievous thought in your head. The more acceptable suggestion in the Indian context of course, is to have pakoras and tea, and gossip.
Of course I don’t want you take the naughty suggestion seriously. I want your attention for a while. Otherwise what is the use of my putting pen to paper, or more accurately thumping the keys on my laptop? Of course a laptop in the olden days, sometimes referred to somebody who sat snugly on top of your lap. Lo, there I go again. Jesting in the rain. Well the fact is that I am also trying my best to wring my sodden spirit dry. It is not an easy task, you know. We haven’t seen the sun in what seems to be a fortnight, and the forecast doesn’t exactly say, when the sky will brighten up again. I have been reading books till my eyes water, and my mind has now become, a fully soaked and a dripping sponge. The rain has got to me so much that even the imagery, as in the preceding sentence, has got water logged.
The only other solution in these times is also to surf the internet. Uncle Google, always has a quote to cheer us up on every occasion. Here is something young lovers would like. “If only there was something I could say to make the sun shine and the rain go away…if there was something I could do…it hurts me to think that you are feeling so blue…so I will be your umbrella, together we will stand, to weather the storm, I will be holding your hand.” In days of our youth, when we were in love, such a quote would have brightened up our love letters, as also our chances. But back then Google hadn’t been even been conceived, and it was impossible to find, such rare gems to quote. The fashion of love letters being over, such quotes can still liven up, a Whatsapp message. One has to be a little careful though, as to whom one sends that one to. A sceptic net savvy cupid resistant recipient, could dampen your enthusiasm by retorting, in the words of Bob Dylan: “You say you love rain, but you use an umbrella to walk under it. You say you love sun, but you seek shade when it is shining. You say you love wind, but when it comes you close your window. So that’s why I am scared when you say you love me.” Shillong, as you might know is full of people who love Bob Dylan and are also suspicious of love. A more appropriate message might be, “Maybe I can’t stop the downpour. But I will always join you for a walk in the rain.” To quote Bob Dylan once more, “Some people feel the rain, others just get wet.”Most people also just flee the rain. Talking about feeling the rain, a couple of nights ago one witnessed a real treat. On a compound adjacent to ours, and separated only by a chain link fence, one saw two young Naga girls, in their teens actually enjoying the rain. The sat on a couple of swings, and as the rain poured down on them, they loudly sang their hearts out, without a care in the world. Garth Stein, writer and film producer is once quoted to have said,” I think that the one that’s going to be the hardest to make into a film is the one that’s probably going to made into a film, which is , ‘ The Art of Racing in the Rain.” I mean, it’s narrated by a dog. How do you do that? But hopefully we will get to see.” Well Mr Stein, these girls could have given you a new perspective. And you would have had a couple of natural performers to replace the dog too. This is what every child does naturally, till the adults teach them about catching a cold and locking up their soul. I know of one child who is so protected, that she catches a cold, when she merely jumps across a small puddle. Really, I am not joking.
Shillong weather I feel makes us, its residents, over defensive. We spend most of the time wrapped up in extra clothing: jackets and raincoats in the five months of the monsoon, and another three cocooned from the cold in winter. Our minds also exist in isolation. We are forever scared of catching something new; even an attitude that is not traditionally ours. Thank God in a way we don’t really live in the plains. With floods and all, we might even jump up in fear, if someone merely jests, “Noah called. He will pick us up in ten minutes.”
A rainy day is excuse, for a break in the pattern of our daily lives. Remember what fun it used to be, when we would deliberately step into every puddle, on our way back from school. When we would splash water on our friends and enjoy hearing them shriek. A holiday on account of the rain, still did not stop us from getting wet. As one grew up the rainy days came to be associated with connotations, which were more serious. “Save for a rainy day”, we were taught. I much prefer the mirth of Mae West when she advises, “Save a boyfriend for a rainy day, – and another in case it does not rain.” With interest rates continually heading south, like falling rain, saving money is definitely not such a hot idea. And please don’t ignore the insight of Robert Frost who says, “A bank is a place, where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and take it away when it rains.”
The last time I wrote a frivolous article like this, a friend accused me of lacking in depth. This time I plead guilty. Yet for people more sombre, let me present to you a small nugget of wisdom, which I accidentally came across, sitting cosy and warm, connected to the internet. There are people who actually love rain. They find joy and peace of mind on rainy days. And there is actually a word for them. Pluviophiles, they are called. Into that category I slot all our government officials especially from the forest department and the PWD. Rain provides them with a perfect excuse, to do even less work, than they are habituated of doing. Trees can keep falling and young promising lives can be lost, but these pluviophile public servants, sit in peace in their offices, sipping hot tea and playing solitaire. They desperately need to be reminded that “life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it is about dancing (and working) in the rain”. The suggestion to cuddle at the beginning of the article is strictly, not meant for them. It applies only to us, the general public, so that we may save our lives, by not venturing out, unnecessarily in the rain.
Truth be told, I too love the rain. Rather than sitting at home and writing this piece, I would rather be getting soaked riding a motorcycle. There is something strangely liberating about that. Sadly though, the word limit of this article isn’t so liberal. One has to conclude soon and in conclusion, though staying with the rain, but completely out of context, let me leave you with a very descriptive fragment of a sentence, from John Greens book, “Looking for Alaska”. It goes on to say “if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.” What a drippingly imaginative way to categorize humans? The rest of the passage, though less scandalous than my beginning, nevertheless cannot be quoted since it contains a four letter word. Those interested in reading it can, like me throughout this article, call upon Uncle Google.
P S: On a more serious note, I wish to offer my sincere condolences to the families of Crystal Gayle Kharnaior, Paul LB Lyngdoh and Hubert Swer, innocent victims of human negligence. Also my sincere prayers for those injured. Often during times like these, one really worries about travelling, not just through the city, but also on the highways in the state. Those responsible for maintaining the safety of the roads, do need be pull up their not so wet socks, for all our sake.
The writer can be contacted at [email protected]