Forecasting

Kolkata has faced quite heavy rains over the last few days. But, this one is not about the rains, but the forecaasting with them. The met department at Alipore forecast a clear day Monday, based on the prediction that the atmospheric depression woul move towards Orissa. This, actually, was borne out by folks at a shipping compan who said that the weather pattern had actually moved away from West Bengal. But somehow, Kolkata received more massive rains on Monday, than it did on Sunday.
Not content with that, the met office predicted "Terrible Tuesday", with heavy rains, and guess what ... bright and sunny Tuesday. By then, though, Kolkatans were in s frame of mind that if someone switched on the fan, they got scared because they thought that it had begun raining again.
A beautiful phenomenon ... the Monsoons ... the harbinger of joy, of fertifility to a culture parched by the Summer ... when children love to get wet in the rain, when "Saawan ke jhoole lag gaye ...", has been converted into a scene where people have to wade through waist high water, and instead of sitting on the balcony, and enjoying garam-garam Chai, with Pakodas, they are wondering about how they will make it to the Office tomorrow. And all this, when we are celebrating the Incredible !ndia @ 60 campaign in New York ...

Global Warming and ... Calcutta!

There is a video presented by Al Gore ... Inconvenient Truth ... Which talks about Global Warming! This talks about global warming, and climate change.

The video talks about land masses changing shape, and large parts of land masses getting submerged in water. This is a real concern. One of the areas which could get submerged in this is Calcutta. My thought ... Do we need Global Warming to do that? Monsoons are enough to achieve this.

Every time it rains in Calcutta, half the city is submerged ... People trying to figure out whether they will be able to reach Office, and if they reach, then trying to figure out whether they will be able to get back home!

Photograph from Kolkata

I just got a bunch of pictures from a colleague of the havoc the deluge played in Kolkata ... People trudging through hip deep water ... Camac Street seems to have been the photographer's favourite.

In all of these, there was a picture of a rickshaw-wallah ... Just an ordinary photograph, but a smile very human ... A smile which welcomes the rains, even with the waterlogging, and all the man made problems that it brings ... A warm welcome ... One that shall never be taken away!

Monsoons ...

This is the first post I am making on this blog. And, needless to say, its about the Monsoons ...

I was supposed to be in Mumbai right now, and had it not been for the rains ... Actually, not the rains, but more the way our infrastructure can handle them ... And, why Mumbai alone ... Kolkata was floating, too!

Though, the fact of the matter is, too, that the Monsoons unleash their own Magic ... the Magic of Saawan ... Of a bountiful crop, which feeds the vitality of a civilization. Of bringing life out of the laboured slumber of the Summers ... No wonder, then, that the Monsoons are celebrated across the length and breadth of the country ... Even if that means that washed clothes remain soggy for days!

Here's to the Monsoons ...