Rains!

 There was this crazy joke. A "Punekar" says," It seems the monsoon this year is going to progress from Pune to Kerala, and to Andaman!" Fun apart, the depression in the Arabian Sea is indeed depressing! The possible La Niña effect has by now settled in to a proper pre-monsoon period!

Yes, the usual rants against the municipal corporation have to begin a month in advance this year. Yes, we all know the usual culprits, the concretisation of every inch, the lack of an effective drainage system, the missing rain harvesting, and so on, and so on! 

The most heart-rending effect of these unseasonal rains (one has to use the plural. No alternative possible at all!) was a video from interior Maharashtra. A very thin, absolutely emaciated farmer had got his crop of peanuts/groundnuts for sale in the district level market. May be, while it was getting weighed, et al, it started to rain madly. The sudden surge of the rain water was such that the poor man had no other go but to watch his yearlong hard work literally going down the drain. His pathetic efforts to save his crop from getting washed away brought a deluge of tears to my eyes. 

Our usual urban woes (sure, our kitchens, too, are soon going to suffer the pinch in the form of the price hike)  are nothing in comparison  with this terrible tragedy. Oh, yes, this poor man, incidentally, had a huge company of other equally ill-fated farmers sharing the sad fate. So, the only fervent appeal has to be, "rain, rain, go away/ do not come before your day!"

Pratima@Unseasonal rains have nothing romantic about them. They possibly cannot be the occasion of Lonavala trips with 'bhajji' plates washed down the gullet with cups of 'masala chai'!