Rainy Day Diary

We don't even recall ever consciously looking at a particular aspect of rain, but we know we are Bengalis, and no matter how muddy our roads get, how much our traffic worsens and how flooded our streets become, we will take one look at the cloudy rainy sky and say, “Today's going to be a beautiful day.”

So what happens when you are a Bangladeshi? What happens when rain means cancelled plans and increased fares and getting wet means a possible cold? What happens when you grow up and no excuse of rain can postpone the report due or the meeting that must be attended? Do we start to resent those days or do we still somehow manage to forget all the inconveniences and love it?

“Whenever it rained we used to get into the big field outside our school and play football, no amount of rain could make us do anything else. The field would always get a little too muddy and at least one of us always ended up with a cold,” Imran, a university student, remembered fondly.

“These days with all the work pressure at university and at work we hardly even get to take a look out the window on a rainy day. But back then was different. It  wasn't just football, it meant something more. The carefree comfort of those couple of hours was amazing” he added.

It's not just the footballers who get the best of it;  “Just before a big rainstorm, you would see the campus getting emptier and when the first droplets hit the ground almost everyone went inside and that is when my friends and I used to get  out”, said Wajahat, a Marketing major at Dhaka University.

“The campus in all its greenery looks so serene and beautiful, unlike anything else in the city. Taking a walk, soaked in rain was the favourite part of the four years I spent there” he also said.

Even if you aren't outside, sitting down with a Tagore book or watching a movie that has been left aside for weeks is all that you need.

These days with so few fields to play on and even fewer free hours, it might seem that we have lost our touch with rain. But take a look outside during rains and you see couples holding hands, school kids running around with their raincoats on and their worried mums chaperoning them to get home dry, strangers sharing an umbrella starting a political discussion under the dry shelter where, a steaming mug of tea and a book, the verandas full of umbrellas put to dry and you find out that rain never even left that adored spot in our hearts.

Photo Credit: Sazzad Ibne Sayeed
Model: Airin