Monsoon Story: Dhanasree Jayaram

Like any other school kid, I used to consider the journey to school during the rainy season quite refreshing on the one hand and unpleasant on the other. Walking through the muddy lanes with a useless umbrella and travelling in a school bus whose windows never shut fully and hence water splashing on everyone's face inside the bus were indeed beautiful experinces. But by the time I reached school, my bag and uniform would be completely drenched with water. The smell of the soil and the leaves are still very vivid in my mind. Our class being almost an underground one with very little provisions for the sunlight to peek through, remained dark throughout the day. This implies that the teachers were forced to switch on all the lights to take class. However, even the electricity was deemed a luxury during the rainy season....generators were meant only for emergency purposes.

In a state like Kerala, scorching heat was nearly 'fiction.' This is a state that receives both South-West and North-East Monsoons. Yet nowadays, places like Wayanad, an agricultural hub, faces severe drought during six months of the year. The suicide rates are rising steadily.

I've just returned from Chennai to my homeland for vacation. The day I landed here, I thought Kerala (Thrissur) was as hot as Chennai. Though pre-monsoon showers have begun, they don't last longer than an hour or two hours. I can't hear the frightening thunder or the sparkling lightning. In fact, for the past few years, Thrissur has been receiving far less rainfall than the normal rainfall. Monsoons have been receding pretty abruptly.

And for a change, monsoons in Kerala have been creating havoc rather than creating life. A modernized, apparently well-planned city like Kochi remains flooded throughout the rainy season. Even a 10-minute heavy rainfall can bring this wannabe metropolitan city to a standstill. This was not the case around 10 years back. Despite the heavy rainfall, no towns used to face any major problem.

Times are changing. Rainfall has also decreased and the systems have also collapsed. Kerala is no longer a "GOD'S OWN COUNTRY.'

Dhanasree Jayaram
dhanasreej@gmail.com

Monsoon Story: Abhishek Jain

This is about the holy Ganga.

This February, I was traveling from Chennai to Lucknow. Kanpur comes in between and that’s where Ganga intersects.

I was very excited that I am gonna see the Ganga for the first time. I was very excited and I started discussing about Ganga with the fellow passengers. They told me that Ganga comes in its full breadth (about 1.5 KM wide span), in Kanpur. They told that how fully flown the Ganga used to be and that pinch is missing now a days.

I was a bit worried to hear that, but thought at least the view should not be like other rivers. To my utter disappointment, I was wrong.

Ganga was flowing only half way through its full breadth. There were crops grown right in the middle on the Ganga. Kids were playing, Excavation machines were being used.

This was February, Monsoon had just passed by and summer had not begun yet. Are we gonna living in a house and say, Ganga used to flow right below my house?

pictures I took while on train, tell the story themselves.

Monsoon Story : Jagan

My native place is Beerpoor, a village in Andhra Pradesh. The population of this village is around 2000 people.

Just to make this story short and also meaningful, I will highlight the issue as we are talking about monsoon.

Behind our house in the village there is a pond and in my childhood with all my cousins we used to go for swimming and myself for bathing as I don't know swimming. But in the recent times when I have visited my place I have noticed there is no water in the pond. Whereas that used to be reason most of our cousins came to that place previously.

I feel so disappointed that as we are witnessing less amount of rainfall in the monsoon period we are missing out the fun in my native place. Imagine the situation of people in my village who depend on pond for various reasons in their day-to-day life.

Regards
Jagan

Address:

Jagan Mohan Vangapelly

S/O. Ramchander Rao

Post: Beerpoor

Mandal: Sarangapoor

Taluqa: Jagtial

District: Karimnagar

Andhra Pradesh 505454

Mail: jaganmohan.vangapelly@gmail.com