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It's raining rain

Snowy Owl

Snowy Owl

Retired in 2010, In Memoriam

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=450 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=news>It is the British who are always accused of talking about the weather. But I think Indians are no better. And one must admit that the channels are really going to town about the monsoon. And why not? It is among the most important annual news events in the life of any Indian, rich or poor, urban or rural.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news>Our screens have been flooded with awesome shots of rivers in flood, of the sea coming inland, hurtling over rocks. And most daunting of all, the streets of our most famous metros with waist- deep water, Kolkata, Mumbai and now Ahmedabad looking like islands in the middle of a river, which brings us to the core of the problem.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news>First, the weather forecasts. I know of viewers who distrust local weather forecasts so much that they tune in to the weather forecasts of the BBC and CNN to keep themselves posted with the worst. Then there is the second bigger problem: how our local authorities are coping with the annual feature of clogged drains, potholes, flooded streets in the same old places year after year. They never seem prepared, always wake up late and put citizens through the same horrific nightmare.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news>And here one must pay tribute to the media. They always do programmes anticipating the annual horrors, they warn the authorities about their lackadaisical attitude and they admonish them when things go wrong. But nothing seems to check the babus and the politicians in power who are responsible for this mess.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news>Which is why it is good to see both professional reporters and ordinary citizens chipping in to illustrate this recurring problem. One admires the intrepid reporters standing in waist-deep water, not even an umbrella over their heads, keeping on through blinding rain to show how inept our cities are at fighting the monsoon.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news>This is also when the citizen reporter by-any-name - steps into the fray. It is good to see angry housewives, elderly pensioners and young boys and girls getting hold of a camera and a mike and feeding the big channels with down-to-earth stories of what everyone is going through.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news>It is also the time when pavement and jhuggi dwellers speak angrily and sometimes sadly into the cameras while they throw out buckets of water in a vain struggle against the elements and show how their meagre belongings are lost to the floods as they struggle to save elderly relatives unable to walk or tiny children who would drown in the waist-deep water.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news>Deeds of heroism are shown, where a neighbour or complete stranger steps in to save a life. Just as one sees gruesome stories of people drowning inside their cars or cars being washed away by powerful currents. And we realise how powerless we are against the fury of nature.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news>However, for those who are lucky enough to work from the home or who stay indoors because they do not have to go out in the rain to office, it is an ideal time to catch up with one's listening or viewing with a dish full of spicy pakoras and a hot cup of tea or coffee. Not only is the news exciting, if murky with accusations and counter-accusations, there is a wealth of sport to watch - cricket and Wimbledon.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news>Of course, rain has almost washed out Wimbledon and has been very unkind to players who sometimes have to rush to the locker room at match point. As Vijay Amritraj, our favourite commentator puts it, the "British monsoon" is almost as bad as the Indian one.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=news>And certainly cricket in England, Scotland and Ireland is hitting players as if they were back in India. Viral flu, we thought was special to India until it downed our cricketers in Ireland, although the freezing cold was as much of a culprit as the rain.
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