The monsoon is a curious paradox. India needs the monsoons. Without them, crops will fail. Farmers will migrate or starve. The rickety, clattering wheels of society in rural Orissa will stop. And yet when the monsoon rains happen, they do anyway.

Today I witnessed the first good monsoonal rain since I got to Berhampur. The monsoons are a month late, and very weak this year. It’s a serious problem for an area and a country that’s had repeated drought problems in the last decade. I hate to imagine the way things would be in this town with a heavy monsoon.

After some moderate rain in the morning, the rains really picked up in the mid-afternoon. It alternately poured and stopped pouring for about four hours. And yet, in that short time, the gutters everywhere were overflowing, the roads were flooded, power was lost, and the city practically came to a halt. Frustrated, I retired to my hotel room for a couple hours and read.

When I headed back out, it was if the town had come to life again. The noise of horns blaring at cattle in the streets was back, the shops were open, and the entire town was filled with stagnant puddles and smelled of sewage. The clattering wheels were back in order.

I guess I’m supposed to hope for more rain.

Posted on July 24th, 2005 by Lee
Filed under: Uncategorized