Good News Monsoon Rains!

The moment I completed my last post it did rain in Mumbai! Maybe light, but it did hit several parts of the city.

And today it rained more! Just now, about to be midnight, it was good rains for few minutes! The clouds look real today--the monsoon type, you know, call it pre-monsoon.

And the good news! The South West Monsoon finally moved out of Kerala and reached Goa. Now, it's set to hit Maharashtra in two days. Means Mumbai is about to welcome the monsoon.

The forecast is good too. The monsoon is expected to deliver 97% rains this season.

Lets hope for the best and celebrate!

O' Monsoon! Thy Phet?

South West Monsoon seems to have developed a fatal attraction for Keralian hospitality. It arrived there in May 30 and stayed put there. This time thanks to Phet--a cyclonic upheaval in the Arabian sea. Or has it been Indian Monsoon's 'fate' as usual?

Same old story like in 2009. Last it was aila cyclone in the Bay of Bengal plus a suspected El Nino conspiracy.

This year the heat is more persistent with mercury hovering over 45 in the state of Maharashtra and other parts of the country. Water scarcity and even drought like situations developing in many parts. Remaining water levels are at the lowest--be it the city of Mumbai or the villages. If the monsoon is delayed further...well, let's not think about it.

Phet had come and spent itself, but the South West Monsoon is yet to be active and moving. The expected date of 5th June in Mumbai is gone. Now it is expected by 10th, but before that the monsoon has to reach Goa.

O' Monsoon please pour soon! Maybe independent India's dependence on you has made you precious and slippery. But at least have mercy on the Indian hapless farmers looking at the sky and praying continuously.

Why We Always Wait For A Tragedy!

The Mangalore runway, called as table top one, was always fraught with danger. But nowhere nobody was concerned about that.

One hundred fifty eight people had to die horribly to draw attention to this fact. On 22nd May at 6.30 am the Dubai-Mangalore Air India Express Flight overshot the runway by 2000 feet and crashed into the gorges that surround the airstrip.

Now only we know about. So many people including experts and air crew talked about the dangers of this table top runway. 'If offered no margin for error, the slightest mistake by pilots and hundreds of lives were always in danger.' Why no precautions were taken earlier to prevent this? Why do we wake up only after a tragedy of immense proportions happens?

And after knowing it what is going to be done? Flights are still landing at and taking off from Mangalore airstrip. Do we need some more disasters?

And, within three days of the accident, the Air India staff has gone on strike demanding more pay. SHAME!