Barsaat in the times of battery of apps

IN THIS DIGITAL AGE OF FAKE RAIN AND CLOUD SEEDING, SOME RAIN PHRASES AND DITTIES MAY BE TAKING ON NEWER MEANINGS

- Chetna Keer

It's that time of year again when the rainy season is at the doorstep and one is not sure whether it's going to rain cats and dogs, or whether one has saved enough for the rainy day.

Come monsoon, and these are just some of the rain idioms one ends up pondering about. How digital life has perhaps even rendered redundant some monsoon proverbs and rain ditties. How technology has even transformed the ways in which we get rain ready. In these times of artificial rain, à la Dubai's fake cloud fiasco, not sure whether we should be saving for a rainy day or saving for a fake rainy day. Or take "My Fair Lady's" fabled rain ditty. Were Hollywood's late diva Audrey Hepburn to do an Eliza Doolittle in this digital era, she may have had to croon tweaked lyrics:

"The fake rain in Bahrain, stays mainly in the plain..."

Rain readiness

As for being rain ready, in pre-digital times, it entailed a huge flurry of preparations.

The rainy season saw people bustling about busy to bring on the three S's: Stocking. Sealing. Saving.

Stocking: It entailed stocking up on provisions lest the Rain God and team decided to play a Test match up in the clouds rather than a sort of quick half-day IPL.