Romanticism and Rains

The rain makes you dance and sing,

Hope and smile, for no tangible reason.

How then, is it any different from love.

There’s something romantic about the rain. It’s pitter patter somehow seems to have the effect of accelerating one’s heart beat. A loner is bound to seek at least companionship, if not love. A social group of which I am a member and where they post Urdu poetry, had something like this in one of the posts:

🌹🌹

बारिश हुई तो तेरे खुशबू के काफीले …

ऐसे उरें 🌹🌹

के शहर गुलाबों से भर गया …!!

🌹🌹🌹

This can be loosely translated as rain seems to have sprung roses all over, making the world happy and beautiful. And mind you, Rose has a close association with romanticism. True, we eagerly wait for rains to come to relieve us from searing heat, replenish our water reservoirs and fill our granaries. However, over the last couple of days, rains have wreaked havoc on Mumbai city. While water logging on roads, railway tracks and airstrip has made commuting painful and there have been instances of deaths due to electrocution, trees falling on humans and other such minor accidents, the last night collapse of a compound wall on a hutment of labours has taken heavy toll by crushing tens of people underneath ! Similar tragedies have been reported from Pune and Kalyan also. And increasingly with global warming, rains are going to be shorter but more fierce and such tragedies may continue to happen in future also.

I think the gentle rain accompanied by mild, pleasantly cool breeze, falling on leaves and creating music was probably the cause of linkage between rain and romanticism. The scenario as explained in the preceding paragraph is more a matter of survival than the rosy romanticism. Therefore, a connoisseur of Urdu myself, I posted the following on the same group site:

آوام کے لئے آفت ہو جائے

بارشوں کا انتظار اسلئے تو نہی کرتے

ارے برکھا پیاس بُجھا پانی پلا

پد لوگوں پر لہر نا برپے

The above is loosely translated as we don’t wait for rains to cause catastrophe but for water; oh rain you quench our thirst but don’t wreak havoc!

Hope the country gets plentiful rain that brings prosperity for everyone, but tragedy for none.