India: O' Monsoon!

India had achieved its independence from the British in 1947. But its dependence on the monsoon rains continues unabated. Just a few days delay and all hell breaks loose across the country.

For the year 2009 the South West Monsoon developed early in the Indian Ocean and arrived at the first destination Kerala, a state of South India, just after the third week of May. People, harangued by continuing humid heat, were elated at the prospect of early rains. The monsoon was expected to advance further and hit Mumbai by the end of May.

It was not to be. Maybe the monsoon this time relished the Keralian hospitality very much and so stayed put there for over a week. Weather experts put the blame on the Aila cyclone over the Bay of Bengal for causing the delay.

Even the 10th June customary rendezvous with Mumbai was not met. The monsoon did hit Maharashtra, a state of Central-West India on the way up from Kerala, before that date, but it preferred to remain inactive for unknown reasons. Experts now suspected an El Nino conspiracy. A few days later the monsoon finally advanced towards Mumbai, but at the last minute it sidetracked the city and other areas of the state and reached Gujarat. In Gujarat too the monsoon persisted with its inexplicable obstinate unwillingness to pout down.

Finally Mumbai and Maharashtra got good rains on June 26th and experts gave the verdict that the monsoon was now active. But many other parts and whole of northern India still languished.

The delay of over 15 days(as of June 2009) led to soaring temperatures, widespread water scarcity in rural areas, heavy water and power supply cut in cities, possible crop failure across the country with farmers looking up at the skies in loud prayers and even going to the temples to appease the rain gods. The national capital of Delhi had been reeling under severe heat made worse by water and power cuts. Drought like situations emerged in North and North East regions. The government got activated at the Prime Ministerial level and emergency meeting were held with weather and agricultural experts. The earlier forecast of above normal rains was degraded to below normal-slightly, they said.

There was still hope. The monsoon had been active and advancing steadily towards the north. Good rains in July could still bail the country out of crisis. It was an excruciating vigil of wait and watch.

The moot point is India's slavish dependence on the monsoon or better, the weather gods. With more than seventy percent of the country's population engaged in agriculture the country is yet to find an infrastructural solution to this pre-independence syndrome. Other problems of poverty, illiteracy and farmers' suicides are invariably linked to this basic malady.

Relent, O' Monsoon!