A Grueling Tale of Relentlessly Humid Heat! Extremely Uneven Monsoon!

Climate change and global warming are by now household words, and more frighteningly, the impact of these terms have been cruelly discernible in the daily lives of the citizens in many parts of India and the world. The world leaders must understand the deadly reality of our only habitat getting hotter and hotter by the day, and if this is not checked immediately by whatever possible means in our command this planet is set to be uninhabitable very soon, sooner than we think. The South West Monsoon, still the mainstay of agriculture in India, has been uneven this year in the extremes—some traditionally dry regions getting excess rains to a huge extent, some regions getting their full quota delivered in a matter of days and some traditionally wet regions still not having a monsoon with its usual flow and downpours. Therefore, in all such cases the monsoon is not helping the farmers at all, and on the other hand, people in many areas with scarce rainfall are suffering from continuous heat waves and relentless humid heat even in the traditionally wet months of July and August.

 

We were in Kolkata, the state of West Bengal, during most of the first three months of June-August, and although the monsoon made an early entry it is yet to justify its normal course of behavior and downpour. The Met department has been putting the blame on the absence of low-pressure systems in the Bay of Bengal, and even though there were two or three low-pressure developments in the recent weeks the state of Odisha got the rains away from Bengal on all such occasions, leading to excess rains there. Therefore in Kolkata and several other districts, we continued to suffer from intolerable humid heat and unusually high temperatures hovering around 35 degree C.; rains have been there in fits and starts, but not with the heart in its right place.

 

Around mid-August we came to the north-eastern state of Assam on family issues and a home visit that had been pending since the outbreak of the pandemic. Assam has been a state where the rain Gods always showered mercy upon. Here, we all have been growing up with the notion that following a day of sultry heat a thundershower invariably comes in the evening or late night thus giving immediate relief. However, during the first ten days of our stay in Guwahati we’ve not seen a single drop of rain or high wind; forget about the nostalgic sound of the thunder and the sight of black rain-bearing clouds. One obvious factor is that the near-full monsoon quota was delivered just in days in the month of late May and early June, leading to unprecedented floods and rainwater logging. And now, only humid heat prevails with temperatures around 35 which are extremely unusual with no relief in weeks.

 

Then, we traveled eastward to Nagaon, a city in central Assam. The scenario gets even worse. We’ve immediately encountered a 2-degree hike in temperature than in Guwahati, that is say around 37 degree C, in these areas with the roasting humidity adding fuel to the heat-fire. And yes, no relief in terms of thundershowers or high wind or anything. The halfhearted clouds that gather almost on a daily basis make it a more insufferable experience. The farmers are put into a contrasting situation—they first had a rain deluge in their fields thus delaying the cropping season and now their fields with growing plants are cracking up due to the total absence of rain. This is not just our tale; it is the tale of a huge chunk of humanity spread across the planet. Only recently, we heard about the unprecedented heat wave in England where the temperatures crossed the 40-degree mark with scary ease.

 

Those lucky ones who can afford the ACs are having some relief sitting at home, but all those ACs humming around every corner—let it be Kolkata or Guwahati or Nagaon—are spreading more hot airs out and making the environment warmer still. In my lifetime I’ve never experienced such fury of unabated heat in my own home state of Assam. Yes, Mother Nature has never been as angry as in the last few years, including this year as perhaps the most watershed one. Nowadays She never bothers about human weather forecasts and ignores those regularly. Humankind must find ways of placating Mother Nature fast, as fast as they’re capable of. All global energy must be concentrated on this battle instead of indulging in ones against each other and endangering the global warming further by pandering to Third World War sentiments. Mind you, it’s basically the weather and the environment that shape human progress and peace. Extreme conditions lead to intolerance among humans, racism and so many other social evils as have been rampant in many nations of the world. It’s Now or Never!

Lord Shiva Dwells In Your Heart And Home Always!

Lord Shiva is believed to be the most powerful God in the Hindu Trinity with Brahma and Vishnu. Lord Shiva is described as a destroyer and also a recreator and transformer. He is also referred to as Mahadeva or Maheshwar—the Great God. In his benevolent form he lives like a simple householder with his family of other Hindu Gods and Goddesses and spends His time in Kailash with the simplicity of an ascetic. But when He is angry, he becomes the Destroyer in which form he can obliterate demons, impurities in human minds and even the whole world. He is everywhere like any other omnipotent and omnipresent God. You can find Him in your heart, in the environs of your home and do your prayers accordingly; and if you want to worship Him in the form of an idol you can install a Shivling or Shiva Linga, the mark or sign or symbol of Lord Shiva, in your home or visit a temple or a shrine or a place of worship even under a big tree that are found almost in every locality in India. There are even artistic priests available in the country who can come to your home, create a perfect idol of Shivling in clay and do a most gratifying Puja for you. You absolutely need not launch yourself in a journey of finding and discovering Him.

 

History is a process of evolution and change. Mother Earth keeps on changing through wars, conflicts, rivalries, reforms and recreation in an endless cycle. Mother Earth belongs to the whole of humankind, and not to any particular section of it. Since evolution has been the eternal cycle human discoveries and inventions definitely mark the progress of humankind. In modern times archaeological surveys lead to priceless discoveries of civilizations, scriptures and monuments. Such priceless assets add to our knowledge and should ideally be preserved in museums and research institutions. Such discoveries should never ever lead to disputes or quarrels over the rights of ownership as we just said Mother Earth belongs to all. Petty quarrels make Lord Shiva very angry and we’ve been watching the devastation caused by Mother Nature in the recent decades, and mind you, the Shakti or the energy of Lord Shiva’s better half Parvati or Durga or Kali gets channelized through the Lord only.

 

Throughout history many of the kings or emperors, irrespective of their religions, had either done a lot of good or did a lot of evil deeds and acts of destructions. Many invaders coming from various regions of the world ravaged and savaged our countries on many occasions leaving a trail of pain and suffering; however, the next rulers repaired again, and therefore, the process goes on. We cannot bring those to court for doing wrongs over the centuries, neither can we reward those benevolent ones in public events. But we can do indeed learn, gather knowledge and follow the good ideals.

 

We should consider ourselves very lucky to be living in a modern and digital world of today where everything is at our fingertips. We can even find our beloved gods and goddesses in our handy devices and sing or listen to prayers, either alone with oneself or with others, within them. If we find something objectionable or we disagree with something/someone we can always exchange our views openly in a peaceful and a virtually-built environment, instead of breaking out in open physical conflicts that definitely anger the divine powers, Mother Earth and Mother Nature. The best option is to go on enhancing our Gyan or wisdom rather than be vapid about it.

 

We should also shift our focus on how to further the all-round progress of our country in all fields of activity. We’ve seen how the Pandemic nearly destroyed us; how the economies have been hit; how the inflation is becoming uncontrollable; how the gas cylinder prices have shot up beyond the 1k mark and the fuel prices have crossed the 100+ mark, still rising; how the unemployment has been becoming a scourge; and what has been happening to our neighboring country Sri Lanka. We have much to ponder upon while keeping our prayers pure and within ourselves. Besides, should we go on with our relentless hunts/quests/pleas to overburden our courts that have already been reeling under extreme pressure?

Split Between Act of God and Follies of Humans!

Natural calamities, plagues, epidemics and pandemics are considered as destined acts of God while other disastrous happenings like major fires, blasts, pollution, climate change degeneration of all kinds and so on are considered acts of humans. Cases like famine come in-between: depending on the exact cause of its spread, if it was due to God-made natural disasters or man-made follies or inequalities, famine can either be God-willed or acts of humans. However, such interpretation creates a conflict of interest between believers and non-believers or atheists, because the onus on God for those acts would not be acceptable to the atheists who would say everything in the universe is in a continual state of being with only cosmic cause and effect. If we bring in Nature or Mother Nature, then, perhaps, a common ground can be reached, because Nature is indeed a state of being and its forces have always been recognized by all of humankind: that humans are nothing to the immense powers of nature, and if the primitive humans worshiped these forces of nature, slowly adorning them with names or symbols of Gods and Goddesses, the atheists would just take nature as nature, matter of fact.

Now, when we talk of God in the supposed acts there ensues a blinding maze of complications and confusion. ‘God’ is basically the outcome of a religion, of course, at a later stage of human civilization, and religions have since become numerous and varied. Different religions are centered around different faiths, and as per the faiths or the ideologies associated with them the divine entities get created…sorry, get named or identified…because it’d be blasphemy of the worst kind to say humankind has created the creator. Anyway, all religions do not follow the principle or the supreme belief of monotheism or one God, and the faiths or ideologies or requirements of various religions define multiple divinities for worship, preferably in separate places of worship. The moot point being made here is that few religions can follow monotheism and others can have numerous Gods and Goddesses that could even run up to millions. Complications rise further when some ideologies get formed around particular Gods or Goddesses. On the other hand, in the same way as a few significant segments of people of countries with huge population end up getting ‘not accounted for economically’, a large number of divinities slowly merge into oblivion too.

Here we’d like to sound a word of caution that the classes of believers and non-believers should not be further classified into the conservatives and the liberals. It is not necessary that a believer needs to be a conservative always, s/he could be a liberal too, and ditto for the atheists. Besides, the ideologies the classes follow or might follow are mutually inclusive as far as the two major classes, as mentioned, are concerned, it’s being a matter of faith, and faith only.

Considering the momentous fact, or believed as such, that the divinities have granted us, since times immemorial, a beautiful place to exist and live in, no matter if it be the tiniest of dots in the limitless universe, and have also given us full autonomy to cohabit peacefully with nature, we should not go on finding faults in their actions or rather supposed actions. Okay, the Coronavirus pandemic is undoubtedly an act of God or Mother Nature and the pandemic has rendered humankind helpless and pathetic. But we must always understand that in almost all the religions God is looked upon as a benevolent and kind authority, it is also believed that God always acts or does for the ultimate good. Therefore, we must accept the act as a way of life, and try making the best of it by being dexterous, innovative and tireless, instead of sitting tight and putting the blame on the divinities all the time.

We must, to be consistent with our babble, make the concluding point. No doubt, the pandemic has tremendously impacted humankind and the economies it thrives in. But while the supposed act of the divinity has indeed delivered the blow, for whatever reasons, it is in the hands of humankind to try limiting the damage and find a solution for the ultimate recovery, and mind you, do not ever underestimate the power of humanity having witnessed the stupendous progress achieved over the centuries, at times even threatening the exclusive divine territories. Then, we have earlier seen that there are many religions across the globe, there are multiple divine entities associated with diverse faiths and the plethora of ideologies centered around various divinities. Therefore, before putting the blame on the supreme authority, God, we must introspect as to on whom exactly are we putting the blame, concomitant with our ideologies.  Our ideologies define us only, never the divine entity or entities. Monism, if not global monetarism, should bind humankind in one wholesome unit at this hour of crisis.

Mumbai Monsoon: Still Unwilling To Pour & Water Cuts!

The heavy showers in Mumbai city and some adjacent area in the first week of July seemed to indicate that the monsoon finally caught the rhythm and we hoped that rains would be regular for the rest of the season. But no, the inexplicable unwillingness to pour showed up again from mid-July, particularly in areas of Thane district. The skies, as in the month of June, remained mostly gloomy with floating clouds contributing to the uncomfortable humidity. Even though the temperatures were below 33 degree Celsius the real feel with 80—90% humidity was around 38 degree! At times, the skies blackened hopefully with occasional soothing sounds of thunder, but mostly it petered out without pouring. There were, of course, a few incidents of showers, but not up to the desired intensity and consistency. And now, the obvious happened! Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced a 20% water cut from 5^thAugust, valid not only for Mumbai city but also for parts of Thane and Bhiwandi.

Very heavy showers in Mumbai city in early part of July, leading to water-logging on several occasions, ensured the overflowing of only Tulsi lake which is situated within the city limits, but the remaining six major water supplying lakes were much below the overflowing mark. Taking all the seven lakes into consideration the water level is only 34% of the overflowing capacity at this moment while it was 85% this time in 2019 and 83% in 2018. The BMC said that although Mumbai city received heavy showers in the first half of July the rains were not at all sufficient in the catchment areas around Thane and Bhiwandi. As has often been seen in the past deficient monsoon in catchment areas eventually leads to severe water shortage from October onward. The BMC assured that with the expected rainfall during August the cuts will be eased out gradually.

This month is our only hope for the monsoon to pour in these areas, because from September the South West Monsoon normally starts withdrawing from Maharashtra. There were water shortages and cuts in the past, no doubt; but in all of my years in Mumbai I have never seen such unwillingness on the part of the monsoon to pour and its adamant defiance of the weather forecasts on almost a daily basis This has been witnessed from mid-May till now. Tired of watching the skies for possible rains we often check the weather on our mobile screens, and lo! So often we behold ‘thundershowers’ in full flow on the screens with the special lightening effects. But, unfortunately, nothing of that sort happens in reality, with the sky looking as gloomy as ever and the humid heat seeping into us. Yes, Mother Nature has been angry with humankind since a long time, and has demonstrated her wrath through the unending saga of COVID-19 forcing governments take unprecedented measures and poor humans hide at home. We hope fervently Mother Nature take mercy on us forgiving our sins, and pour Her blessings on us in near future. Meanwhile, humankind must learn to be grateful, moderate and reciprocating. 

Mumbai: Yes Monsoon, No Rain!

The South West Monsoon arrived dot on time in Kerala on 1st June, 2020 and hit Maharashtra on 11th June--late by only a day. In the next two days the Monsoon covered all of Maharashtra including the COVID-tormented city of Mumbai. While there have been heavy rains in all parts of the state Mumbai and its suburbs have not felt the presence of the Monsoon yet--rains so far only scattered and inconsistent, unable to lessen the discomfort of the people as humidity was increasing all the time. Recently cyclone Nisarga headed for Mumbai side-tracked the city at the last minute and roared into interior Maharashtra just before the Alibaug town on the coast. That was perhaps a sort of a divine intervention sparing the city reeling under COVID spread from another disaster. In the last two days thunderstorms as per weather forecast for Mumbai and Thane didn't materialize at all. However, we would rather not expect the same treatment to be meted out to the city in regard to the Monsoon too. 

The summer this time was marked by relentless heat in the range of 35 to 41 in the city and suburbs including the satellite city of Thane for than two months in the period March-May. There was not even a hint of any dark clouds or high wind during this time--the unusually merciless heat consisting of both dry and humid spells. The desperately-awaited relief was provided by Nisarga; but it lasted only for two days, not coinciding with the monsoon build-up. The temperatures did come down to around 30-34, but was neutralized by rising humidity levels. In the city, particularly in Thane areas, the sky remained mostly cloudy throughout with drizzle only at times and the sun managing to peep out at other times for the last few days, and with no major downfall or thundershowers the humid heat has started getting unbearable. 

Nowadays we never know the ways of Mother Nature, be it weather or natural disasters or spread of the Coronavirus. As seen in the recent years a week's or even a month's total expected rainfall pours down in a single day, creating rain-water havoc. We hope this doesn't happen this time in Mumbai creating more problems for the financial capital of India which has so far only partially lifted lockdown curbs and also for certain districts of Maharashtra where the killer virus is still raging. Meanwhile the rains have cheered up the farmers all over the state to launch their cultivating season in high spirits which is indeed good news as a normal monsoon can do a lot of good at this time to the distressed economy. The sky continues to remain cloudy and humid and gloomy. Let the rains, in equalized daily installments, break the gloom and bring cheers to the hearts of the pensive people, mostly locked up at homes with masked and socially distanced outings, of the maximum city...