Fabulista Lessons: No Rain; No Rainbows

"Rainbows are optical and meteorological phenomena that cause a spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere. They take the form of a multicoloured arc, with red on the outer part of the arch and violet on the inner section of the arch. More rarely, a secondary rainbow is seen, which is a second, fainter arc, outside the primary arc, with colours in the opposite order, that is, with violet on the outside and red on the inside."

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There was a time, as a child, when five-o’clock in the evening was a magical time. It was a time when the sun has just given up its seemingly relentless hold in the searing sky. The air begins to cool and the humidity dips just that much to allow kids to venture out of doors to play. Oh yes, homework is done and the bewitching hour to play has arrived.

With the cooling air comes a natural risk – the possibility of precipitation looms as the air cools the moisture in the air. The chances of evening rain is always high in tropical climes. But even without the rain, we are already wet with the excitement of venturing out of doors, running out of the house, down the stairs and into the wild, free embrace of the open fields.

It was on one of those days, when the sky threatened to release its hold of the heavy waters that grandma made dinner. As I rushed to ask her for permission to play in the grassy fields outdoors, there was a flash. The inevitable thunder rolled and I saw my chances to play washed away by the sudden and torrential downpour.

Grandma gave me a consoling smile. It was understood that going out of doors would be impossible; even if the rain should stop right there and then, the ground would still be wet after the licks from the sky. The rain from the sky basically translated to sulks on my face.

After a short while, grandma finished clearing up the kitchen as the downpour graduated into a drizzle. She gently took my hand and led me out into the porch with her trademark woven fan. I was elated as I secretly hoped that she’d bring me out of the boredom that is the four walls of the house.

At the porch, we sat together by the steps. She raised her fan to the sky and gestured silently that I should look. There it was the seven-coloured arc that swept across the evening sky. It set itself apart from the golden wash, granted by the now setting sun, on the crown of the trees. My breath was taken away, flung far away from my tiny lungs, skywards to the wondrously intense colours of the rainbow hanging in the heavens.

“Just because you can’t play does not make the rain a bad thing,” she explained sagely, “because it also means that the plants and trees get fed by heaven.” Yes, and I realized, so does the birds that rest in the trees and the frogs in the pond get a shower. They too, are celebrating and singing their songs of thanks and gratitude, with their chirps and croaks.

“And in response to their songs,” grandma smiled, “is a colourful respond – the seven coloured rainbow in the sky.”

Grandma always has an answer for everything. She is ever so wise. I learnt a few years later after, that rainbows are caused by the internal refraction of light, in the suspended water droplets. But I never forgot the lesson of the “colourful respond” in the sky.

Things don’t always go our way. Situations don’t always work to our advantage. But the world does not revolve around us – there is always someone to benefit from any circumstances. And if we want, we can always choose to “see the rainbow” in the situation.

There won’t be rainbows if there is no rain. We won’t know happiness if we never had tears.