Love of Rains
As a young boy, I was always fascinated by the rains. Fortunately, I grew up in a place where rains were a plenty. We used to get rains two times a year – during the South-West Monsoon and North-East Monsoon. When it rained, it used to be an incessant downpour, which used to last for hours together!
The start of the rains always used to coincide with the start of the new academic year. The first day of school, was always a wet experience; all of us getting drenched. The umbrellas were of little or no help at all; for the rain used to hit us from all sides due to the heavy winds. Sometimes, the umbrella would turn turtle in the wind and getting it back in shape was an effort.
The roads and the by-lanes would be totally submerged with the gushing water as it found its least resistant path to the sea. The front of our house was always knee deep with the rain water. When the rains used to take a break, we children, used to make paper boats and play boat race. We used to be very creative in making the boats. We had a single sail, multi-sail boats, covered and open, catamarans and yachts and so on..
We never had the TV and video games then. We used to play together in the open. That taught us the principles of sharing, caring, give-and-take, compassion, respect, cohesiveness, love and affection.
Sorry to say, todays’ jet age children would not know any of these. They have lost the love for rains and rather hate the rains. The life lessons that the rains taught us in our childhood unfortunately is not relished by the current generation.
How I wish I was a child once again!