My Take on the world events
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Monday, August 01, 2005

Rain Rain Go Away....

(Disclaimer:No No.
This is not a blog on the Mumbai Rains. I think enough has been written on it and I think that most of the writing has started becoming counter productive to the issue. The Mumbaikars
have taken this in their stride and I will let them alone for now. “aamchi Mumbai” will survive the disaster…..

This Blog actually does not apply to Mumbai and other rain affected parts of the country.
The Blog actually is on the cultural differences of the West and the East.)




I am sure all those who have done some part of their schooling in English have heard and crammed the nursery rhyme – Rain Rain Go Away….

This is taught religiously in our schools and we have recited it to umpteen times to get more “marks” or to get the accolades from others who doled out goodies onto us when we recited it (…obviously I am talking about the childhood).

Now think about this, should our country collectively recite this Poem. Should our spokespeople with God (the innocent children) be singing “Rain Rain Go Away” when most parts of Cpuintry never get enough rain. Doesn’t our agrarian economy and some of our water starved parts of the country “hope” for more rain than less…

On the contrary the poem that kids recite in Marathi says “Yere Yere paavasaa” welcoming the rain.

The stark difference in the theme of these poems is the cultural (or should I say geographical) background of their origin.

The former comes from England, where rains are a given constant and a hindrance for Little Johny’s play. (Interesting tidbit about the poem)

The latter come from the agrarian background of India where the Rain God (Indra) is the king of all Gods.

I think Rudyard Kipling was right …

East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet. BTW - This snippet is generally used in the wrong sense

4 comments:

Aekta said...

You're so right. When my kids were in preschool, I'd avoid teaching them this rhyme: Why tell the rains to go away when we all actually love the rains here!!!!

Amit said...

Aekta - Exactly..... obviously this is not withstanding what is happening in Mumbai...

Thanks for ur comments

Michael Higgins said...

Hi @mit
Well, if you love cricket, then you would want the rain to stay away (at least for 5 days).

Btw, I had not noticed that you are in Minneapolis. I lived there for many years. I used to live just 2 blocks from Lake of the Isles and loved to walk around the perimeter.

Amit said...

Michael – you are forgetting one point though…. I support India more often than not and most of the times I am hoping at least the rain gods will save us :D

Lake of the Isles – That is a great place to stay and even better to walk around….I noticed that you did your Phd from Minnesota. I love Minneapolis for its people and their warmth but do not like the cold weather at all…

Last but not the least – I just love your blog. It is great for the posts and the dialogue in the comments section.

Thanks for visiting mine once in a while.