Get caught in the rain

Ratna Raman

I GREW up listening to the song ‘Don’t go out into the rain, Sugar, you’re gonna melt’, sung persuasively by Herman’s Hermits (1967). It short-circuited all outdoor expeditions while it rained and was reinforced by warnings from mothers, aunts and the elderly, all of whom believed that being drenched in the rain would result in contracting  pneumonia and subsequently ‘catching one’s death.’

 When we were little, cars and homes were neither air-conditioned, nor air-cooled. Everyone stood in the first rain and soaked in it to get rid of prickly heat. Nycil was yet to market its fragrant powder in those days.

Paper boats were set asail in overflowing street drains and clothes smelt funny after drying indoors, but it was fun to be ‘caught in the rain’, unencumbered by branded clothes, cell-phones and laptops.

 In any case, getting caught in a sudden shower is to be infinitely preferred over ‘being caught in daily traffic snarls’, although air-conditioning keeps out the heat and polluted air while the engine idles forever and a day.

‘Caught with one’s hands in the cookie jar’ indicates not only children stealing biscuits, but also thieving adults ‘caught with their hands in the till’ (stealing money). ‘Being caught on the wrong foot’ or ‘caught with one’s pants down’ indicates  inappropriate social or sexual behaviour. 

Being ‘caught in the cross fire’ is dangerous, because it involves severe collateral damage. ‘Collateral damage’ is a sly phrase, suggesting that damage is inevitable and unavoidable, which is far from the truth. It is sanctioned by an insidious system that views both material destroyed and lives lost  as of little consequence.

Being ‘caught red-handed’ involves apprehending a criminal for murder, although this doesn’t really seem to be happening in our country any more. Being ‘caught in the assailant’s cross-hairs’ is the worst place to be in, especially if one happens to be human.

‘Cross-hairs’ refer to two thin wires crossing each other in a rifle or gun enabling perfect aim for the shooter. Hapless citizens in India have been caught in the cross-hairs of a uni-dimensional political lens. Women were always vulnerable, but now men from particular communities are being singled out and targeted on the basis of the clothes they wear, the religion they follow and the food they eat.

Protests titled ‘Not in My Name’ organised in many cities drew sizeable crowds. Expressing solidarity, participants from all walks of life voiced collective anguish over the state’s ‘turning a blind eye’ to relentless bloodletting and butchering.

Echoing older political traditions of dissent expressed by Starhawk and William’s  poem, Pledge of Resistance and by NION in 2002 (Not In Our Name, US), an anti-war group that protested the Bush administration policy of attacking people on the basis of religion and ethnicity,  New Delhi’s NIMN ended in a downpour.  Everyone sheltered beneath trees and makeshift tents while the torrential rains symbolically washed away the hatred and ugliness dogging everyday life.  

Being caught in political cross-hairs is far more dangerous and signals the death of humanity. This must be irrevocably shut down and banned forever, in the interest of everyone’s health.