Monsoons in India

The word "monsoon" is associated with rain in India. In dictionary, the actual meaning of monsoon is "change of wind direction". The monsoons bring in a lot of rain in India. So, rain and monsoon are synonymous in India. Monsoon rains create a romantic mood to all Indians. India is normally very very hot in summer and the people yearn to get a respite from it. The respite is brought out by the monsoon rains. Many songs use rain as the main theme. All art forms use rain as a backdrop to create a romantic mood. Many Indian movies have rain as the title or as the main character in the stories.

There are two monsoons in India. One is South-west Monsoon and the other is North-East Monsoon. The names are derived from the directions from which the wind blows in India. The first monsoon season starts in first week of June and continues till August. The wind picks up a lot of water from Arabian Sea and brings in copious supply of rain water to western coasts, northern areas, Southern tips and central parts. The second monsoon is from September to November. The wind picks up water from Bay of Bengal and brings in rain to mostly east coasts, some central parts and north-east areas.

Currently, North India is reeling under severe heat wave thanks to delay in onset of South West Monsoon. If the monsoon rains fail, then India's agriculture produces fail, causing a major impact on Indian Economy. There are seasonal changes to the amount of rain falls. India used to have droughts once in seven years. The last drought was in 2000-2001! Though the impact of drought is lessened by overall developments in India, still its effect on economy can not be neglected. More than 50% of our population is engaged in agricultural activities and a majority of these activities depend on monsoon rains. Is this year going to be a drought year? Many scientists predict "no". We have not yet perfected a model to predict rain falls accurately. Let us wait till the monsoons get over to assess the accuracy of prediction.

Some NGOs started propagating rain harvesting methods to conserve water and water tables. These measures have produced good results in some areas. Chennai, in which I am living, used to have perennial water shortages. Harvesting methods have yielded good results in this city. Some people used to invoke divine power, whenever rains failed. Some governments used cloud seeding methods to bring in rain to particular areas. This method had only limited success and could not be applied universally.

We are still dependent on Monsoons to cool us and to be prosperous. Monsoons are truly romantic, They bring smile to our faces. Whichever language you use to write the word "rain", they look romantic.

बरसात (Hindi)
மழை (Tamil)
Rain (English)