With the onset of the monsoon in India, suddenly spirits soar and the smell of wet earth, falling rain accompanied by overcast skies and cloudy weather bring a smile on parched lips. People also start looking out for rainbows, a phenomenon caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a stream of light appearing in the sky taking the form of a multicoloured circular arc.

Rainbows signify hope, happiness and all things positive. Whenever rainbows appear through clouds, it is said that it signifies the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth. A rainbow is like an intangible beauty of nature that makes us see better and brighter days ahead of the storm. How do we convert this chimera of a rainbow into something tangible and achievable?

Life, they say, is not a bed of roses. Without thorns we would not be able to appreciate roses, much like lotus flowers with its colourful open petals signifying growth and enlightenment, rising on long stalks through muddy waters, that inspire her seeds to bloom. We all encounter thorns and muddy waters in our lives, individually or collectively. How we respond to situations and circumstances makes us and determines who we are.

In 1994, the city of Surat, an industrial hub for textiles and diamond-cutting units, in Gujarat, was devastated by the pneumonic plague, a severe lung infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which can spread from one person to another through the air. With its archaic garbage collection, drainage and drinking water system the city's woes were only exacerbated and by some estimates the resultant panic forced almost half its population to desert the city, leaving its reputation as a business hub in tatters. Two years later, however, the city was declared the second cleanest city in India after Chandigarh. The efforts of one man, Suryadevara Ramamchandra Rao, a 1978 batch IAS officer, who was posted as the city's municipal commissioner in 1995, after the plague, changed the face of the city, transformed the mindset of its residents and created a legacy of excellence in urban governance. Here was a person who despite threats to his life and pressure from local politicians and their cronies, literally seized the bull by its horns to not only prevent the recurrence of an epidemic but to restore the faith of the city's residents in the Surat Municipal Corporation. Rao put a system in place which ensured that every new incumbent had to abide by it. The legacy he left behind is unquestionable, as even 25 years after that, as per the latest Swachh Sarvekshan rankings of 2020, Surat was the second cleanest city in India, after Indore.

Inspirational stories abound, of human fortitude under adverse circumstances and leadership to alleviate the pain and suffering of humanity. The common strand however, that runs across these stories is that of individuals who decided to take the bull by its horns and made earnest efforts to bring about change for the better. As Mahatma Gandhi famously said, "Be the change that you want to see in the world." We all need to look for the rainbow in our lives and turn this optical illusion around to bring about hope for a brighter tomorrow, by deliberate and concrete action as "action speaks louder than words."