Rain, Rain, don't go away

Nilratan Halder | Published: February 23, 2024 21:48:38

A shower of rain can make a whole lot of difference. The difference is quite evident right in the surrounding. It could not be more pronounced when Thursday's somewhat untimely but welcome shower literally cleansed the gloom that proved overbearing on both human mind and the city's limited open spaces. In this concrete jungle or jumble, the rare trees and foliage that gathered several millimetres of dust on their leaves to give a faded look, suddenly came alive full of sparkles. As far as eye could see, the sky was clear and the exhilarating air of Spring, the king of seasons, could be felt invigorating the body and mind.
All such abstract changes cannot be measured in any concrete terms but there is one particular measure of the air living organisms including human beings inhale. Dubbed Air Quality Index (AQI), it gives us an idea how polluted or not the air of a particular place is. Dhaka has been making screaming headliners for quite sometime, particularly the past week, for the worst air quality among capitals in the world. Even that AQI gave a better reading the day after. According to the US embassy in Dhaka, which keeps a tab on the air pollution in this capital, on Friday the AQI was 137, a sharp drop from 161 on Thursday, which also dropped from Tuesday's 175 AQI.
It is learnt that the rain also came down as a blessing in the Rajshahi region, where rainlessness or aridity at times reaches critical points in the summer. This splash of rains has worked wonder for the mango orchards in particular. With the mango trees now in full bloom, the rain does lend a hand for the blossoms to fruition even better than expected. Other crops will equally benefit from this brief spell of shower from the open sky. This is propitious, no doubt.
Khana, a wise woman reputed for deep perception unlike the soothsayers or oracles in Greek mythology, had some pragmatic observations on rainfall. She claimed, 'jodi borshe Fagune, cheena, kaun dwigune' (If it rains in Falgun, crops cheena and kaun would yield twice as much). The more important part of her saying, 'jodi borshe Magher shes, dhonnyi rajar punya desh' (If it rains at the last part of Magh, an august king rules over a pious land).
Well, she might be right but for the departure of kings and queens of the traditional type and the climate change. Kings and queens have been replaced by presidents and prime ministers almost everywhere. Even where they still survive do as titularies with no real power but requiring to perform some ceremonial functions. The equations with their subjects have phenomenally changed. In the same way, cropping pattern in this part of the world has also gone through a paradigm shift.
Thus Khana is no longer as relevant as she was. Aus and Aman were the two main crops farmers cultivated. Irrigation with water from a far away water body or from underneath layers of soil below by pumping machine was beyond their imagination. But today crop fields of IRRI, Boro and even Aus and Aman are mostly irrigated this way. Farmers do not have to wait for rains to moist their cultivated lands.
Yet the importance of rains does not diminish in the least in the life of the flora and fauna including human beings. If rains do not refill the underground water reservoir, water tables continue to drop further and further. Dhaka City is in a precarious position with the heavy extraction of underground water. Even if there are sufficient rains, the water cannot seep into the layers below because this city has little open space other than concrete cover and water bodies to hold it and gradually send down the layers of soil. One of the explanations for frequent water-loggings in this capital is this imperviousness of its open areas on the surface.
Rain has been a favourite subject with Rabindranath. Promothonath described the subtle variations of rains in one of his famous essays. There have been eulogies galore but yet the fickleness of rains seems to be eluding. It may arrive without any announcement or make all the arrangements of keeping its date but then at the last moment decide not to show up. There it becomes the symbol of life with its immense potential and uncertainty and unpredictability. Rain has a cycle, so has life. It is not for nothing Hemingway makes Henry walk out of the hospital, where the hero leaves Catherine, his love, dead and their stillborn baby, in the rains. Life does not end when it seems there is nothing more to it.