Monsoons In India
The most important event in the Indian year is the monsoons. India is an agricultural country, and the year’s crops depend on the character of the rainy season. A good monsoon means prosperity, excess monsoon indicates floods, and failure of monsoon spells drought and famine
The monsoon, or trade winds, reach India about the month of June, firstly on the south-western coasts of Kerala Coming, as they do over thousands of miles of sea, they are laden with moisture, and when they feel and meet the cool heights of western ghats and later the Himilayas, clouds form, which soon condenses into heavy rains all over the country. In a good monsoon, the rainy season continues until about the end of September.
Monsoons are looked up for with open arms. Before it breaks, the heat is high and intolerable. Day after day, the sun blazes down from an unclouded sky. The ground is baked and parched, the air is like the blast of a furnace, in many places water is scarce and both men and animals gasp and pant in the heat. At last, a thunderstorm rolls up from the southwest and with lightning, thunder and wind, the welcome rain pours down.
The change is almost magical. The air becomes delightfully cool and moist; the sun’s heat is day by day moderated by the clouds, the dry parched land is quickly covered with green vegetation and life becomes bearable and enjoyable except for the fact that heat now turns to be steamy and sticky. The farmers now begin to be busy ploughing and soaking the rain-soaked land for the Kharif or autumn crops.
The rainy season, though a pleasant relief from the fierce heat, has its disadvantages also. Swarms of insects, flying ants, flies, mosquitoes, etc. multiply in great proportions. Mosquitoes breed in standing pools and bring malarial fever with them. More terrible diseases like cholera, typhoid, etc. become havoc among the poor. But the peasants prefer to put up with these inconveniences than a failure of rain which means famines and a year full of sorrows.
