Oshru aar Brishti

Tears and Rain

We do not have control over our tears, they are natural phenomena...

They flow naturally...and will stop when they want to, not when we tell them to !

No matter, how hard we keep trying to make them cease in our eyes, they, like our emotions, overwhelm us when they need to, and of course, we are helpless to their onslaughts - they must flow and never abide by our minds saying to them : stop, don't go ! People might see, it could be embarrassing, you know !

But they flow and they flow...even if the time is not right, even if you make a sorry sight, fast or slow, they have to flow...light or heavy, pitter-patter or profuse...they are boundless and beyond us...isn't it so ?!

But of course, tears bring us momentary relief when we are too choked up inside and want to let it all out...so tears can be an outlet of our pain. And many amongst us have also experienced 'Khushi Ke Aansoo' - Tears of Happiness - that extreme state of exhilaration when eyes express it best !

Tears or 'Oshru' are just like the Rain or 'Brishti' as we say in Bengali. Rain is also so much beyond our control. At the most, we can only predict it, though not all predictions may hold true or be accurate enough to measure or quantify its intensity and ferocity of falling on the Earth.

Rain is one of nature's giveaways to us, and just like the warmth and the scorch of the sun, soothing us in the winter and scalding us in the summer, like the dark of the night, and the light of the day, like the "dhoop-chhaon" of a traveller's road, like the positives and negatives of every person on this planet, like the highs and lows of every life, like 2 sides to every coin, even Rain has its pleasures and perils.

Light rain could be a source of sheer pleasure and sensuous enjoyment ( depending on where you are, who you are with ! )

Beautiful views of nature with lush green leaves and trees dripping with droplets of rain...blades of grass in greens and marshes glistening with the spectrum of vibrant colours in the reflection of the sun on the water drops. The skies overcast with clouds in streaks of white, grey and black...sometimes interspersed with the rising sun's rays or the mid-day sun's glare, or the setting sun's red glow. The birds sheltering themselves on the stems, barks and branches of creepers, plants and trees, fluffing the water out of their feathers to dry up.

The sweet smell of the wet mud titillating our nostrils and of course, the falling, dripping, lashing rain has its own wonderful music to play, changing its melodies from the pitter-patter of a slight drizzle...to the loud, banging ennuis of "it's raining men and it's raining cats & dogs !!" in thunderstorms and cyclones - jazz, reggae, rock, pop, waltz, classical-instrumental, and what not. Rain - The Music Maker rendering an orchestra of nature's symphonies.

On the downside of it all...heavy rain causes floods and landslides. The havoc plagues people so much that it makes them virtually immobile with road-blocks, water-clogging, the spread of diseases through stagnant water, roof and wall collapses of many kuccha houses and shanty hutments, taking its immense toll on lives and on the livelihood of the daily wage earners, the same rain being revered as a God-Sent gift in dry, arid areas...now being denigrated to a bane/curse on the victims of its flood-fury.

But rain, be it light or heavy, is essential for the earth's flora and fauna to flourish because no rain would mean catastrophe as it might lead to droughts and famines.

So rain, in all its pleasing and painful forms is necessary for the earth to survive, as without it the earth might dry up, wither out and die.

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