Under The Umbrella

As the sky turns grey and the air is filled with the smell of dampened earth, love smitten couples flock the streets, fingers intertwined under a single umbrella that no more seems to serve its purpose of shielding them from the rain! Looking at these blissfully happy couples, it gets me wondering whether these so called romantics actually find the weather romantic or is it the mere idea of romance attached to the weather that draws them out? I know, right now there would be people out there reading this article, thinking that this female has gone crazy, what does she mean by the ‘idea of romance’?

Well this may come as a surprise to many, but the whole ‘under the umbrella’ romance has made a little dwelling into many a peoples’ mind not because they themselves think it to be romantic, but because it has been publicised as being so in our larger than life Bollywood movies, be it Shree 420 featuring Raj Kapoor and Nargis in the all time romantic rain song ‘pyaar hua ikaraar hua’ or Kareena Kapoor and Amir Khan in ‘zoobie doobie’ from the movie 3 Idiots, as the main leads enjoy the coveted moments of romance under their umbrella, titillating the senses of the audience! What these mesmerised audiences fail to understand is that they have been fed with yet another stereotype. Yes a stereotype! The love struck individual, who used to loath the grey monsoon showers, suddenly seems to be in peace with the pitter patter, all because she or he (though mostly it is the 'he' following yet another popular stereotype) is in love! This is nothing but a fancy idea, which has been presented time and again as the epitome of romance.

It is no different from the stereotypical role of a caring and nurturing mother or the macho portrayal of the hero, which has been sold to the public as being ‘ideal’. This tempts the audience into following the same footsteps as the characters on screen, to imitate them and live the ‘ideal’ and ‘perfect’ life, at least what part of it they can. This is where the whole idea of the ‘rain romance’ comes in. The general public or the audience that places these characters and people on screen to be higher than themselves, basically beyond the ordinary, are convinced into doing almost everything that the protagonist does in order to experience the ‘magic’ they see on screen. People try to emulate and behave like the actors to satisfy their own need to feel special.

This however does not mean that a person can not genuinely love the monsoon showers or find them romantic, but when a person who hates the very idea of a tini-tiny stain on his or her clothes all of a sudden is all too excited to hit the road for a long walk in the rain with his or her better half, which would most defintely cost him or her a few mud stains, is where the question arises. We rarely realise that most of our likes or even our general opinion towards certain things or situations are based on what is been presented to us as being ‘ideal’ and are ingrained into our minds through their repeated projection in movies, songs and other such medium of influence.

With this thought I leave you to contemplate and do a little introspection on whether the pitter-patter actually sounds like the melody of romance to 'you'.