Memories of Rainy Days From My Childhood

What I learned from those bittersweet memories and what you can learn from your memories.

I love rainy days. Not because I like the rains, but for the memories, I carry with them.

I have experienced the enjoyment of the rains in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, I could sit and watch the greenery forever.

I know how pleasant it feels when I walk miles and miles in the drizzle in central London, I would never get tired.

I have seen how beautiful and colorful the Bangalore city looks in the drizzle.

But, when I think of rainy days, I don’t think of these cities. Not that I don’t like any of them, far from it. Somehow, it takes my memory to a time thirty years back to the countryside, a tiny village in the coastal part of India, my native place where I was born and brought up.

Rainy days in my native was way different. Since it is part of the coastal area, it rains heavily there, sometimes for a few hours and sometimes for even a few days. Monsoon rain starts at the beginning of June and continues till September, and we call it the rainy season.

Since the rains start in June, it reminds me of the school days as that would also reopen in June after the summer break. While schools would start after two months of summer vacation, rains would start after two months of scorching summer. It was so hard to go to school if it was raining.

Nowadays most people carry an umbrella, but during my childhood days, it was common to wear raincoats. The umbrella was expensive compared to a raincoat, and I didn’t have one.

When I was in third grade, one of my aunts who was working in the city got me an umbrella when she visited us for a festival, and I was happy.

It was a matter of prestige to upgrade from raincoat to umbrella. I was no longer one of those few who didn’t have an umbrella.

I had used big handle ones; they were less fancy but would cover you from rain well because they used to be bigger, but the famous ones were the short ones that you could easily carry inside your bag and would open up quickly on the click of a button!. We used to call it ‘button chatri’ (meaning, button umbrella). It was kind of show off as well among kids — “look, mine is better, how fast it opens on the click of a button, and hear that sound it makes, tick-tack. ”

I used to love playing cricket with my friends but when it would rain, we could not play as the pitch would be wet. We used to play a game called ‘Ginni danda’ a game played with small wooden sticks.

Those days would be full of water almost everywhere. It would cover the rice and paddy fields almost looking like a minor river. We used to make small paper boats and see them traveling with flowing water was fun. Throwing stone that would make multiple jumps, whoever makes more jumps would win. It was fun.

But many days were hard. Bittersweet memories, I would say.

I lived in a tiled house that would work great in areas like my native, where it is hot for most of the year. It would not support well during heavy rain. Water would pour in between the edges from the roof and water everywhere on the floor. Just imagine, little water drops falling on your dinner plate, not good.

To prevent this, we would arrange a few coconut trees leaves cut in the size and shape which we could stick in between the tiles so that water droplets pass through and prevent water leakage inside the house. If that also didn’t work, the last option was to keep a small bucket to collect those water drops.

From time to time, there used to be heavy rains and with poor infrastructure, there would be floods in some areas. Many families had to move to a nearby temporary shelter, somewhere in the school halls or government buildings. That was hard.

But these problems usually were in the beginning, within a few days of the rainy season. After two weeks, everything would settle in and I used to enjoy it. But one problem still seemed to be persistent throughout the rainy season. Electricity.

It probably is hard to imagine now, but there used to be days we live without electricity — no lights, black nights with candles and kerosene lamps. Water pumps would not work so we have to get water from the well, no other electrical appliances would work.

We had purchased our first TV in the late 80s; I was in the 3rd grade and I used to love watching serials, especially few mythological serials and cartoons. Whenever we lose power, I used to be unhappy that I would miss a serial.

Many people would try to correct the electricity problems themselves, as sometimes ‘Lineman’ (technician) would take long to come for repair. The cables used to get rusted, we were calling it as ‘Carbon’ and people would try to clean it themselves or sometimes even hitting the wiring with a long pole. Strangely enough, sometimes it used to work too!.

But there were multiple days when we had no electricity, and it was hard.

Despite those challenges and dismal nights, some nights used to be good in unique ways, now I feel. It used to allow us to talk freely within the family. We had almost forgotten to spend time with each other because of watching TV serials.

When it was dark, most of the people used to spend time in the same room instead of in many rooms lit to save on the candles. It was a kind of soothing feeling. Less light and kind of more togetherness, cozy feeling inside the home, talking freely in that dim light because there was nothing else to do. I miss such ‘no light’ nights these days and recollect whenever we have earth hours these days.

So, yes, some days were unpleasant, some were good. But I carry a lot of memories, whether some days were good, my childhood, friends, school, games and many minor things. Perhaps, I learned to appreciate those insignificant things from those days, and in hindsight, those experiences strengthened me to live a much more comfortable life I lead today.

My learning

When I look back at those days, some days were hard as much as I hoped one day I would live better. Some days were enjoyable as much as even after experiencing life in some cosmopolitan cities like London, NYC, and Bangalore, I long to go back to those days. How contrasting life is.

‘Rainy days’ is a metaphor here. Most of us have such memories from the past — maybe it is your poverty. Maybe it is the hurdle in your education. Maybe you were not loved enough and craved for it. Maybe your relationship was not the way you had expected to be. Maybe you struggled to find a job. You may have some moments of those times, which were nice if you look at it today.

Think about it.

Those memories carry some deeper meaning to your life, as it did for me.

Maybe they taught you to appreciate minor things in life. Maybe they strengthened you. Maybe they pushed you to be the best you can be. Maybe they helped you to create a vision for your life. Maybe they are the reason for you to be someone who you are today.

I feel we should cherish those memories in a friendly spirit, learn from it and move on, and surely, those will take us a long way.