The Long Dry Spell

"After the Storm comes the Calm", goes the old adage. But no one thought that the entire long one month since Aila hit would go without a drop of rain in most parts of West Bengal. It is monsoon season after all! The meterorological department does not have much good news as the reports go. Three years ago we had a very dry year, so much so that most parts of the districts where I worked were declared "drought hit". People say El-Nino effects have two counter products--causing dry spells in one part of the world, and increasing storm in the other. But could an Aila, though was big in magnitude, but not so destructive as El-Nino, could have created such dry weather across the country?

I remember 1986 June 21, the day I landed in Bengal, and I had crossed the Vindhyas for the first time to enter into northern part of India. It was raining all along. Day and night. And the thunders were so strong that I thought each of them was falling just next to me. Nights would pass by without proper sleep. And days would go calling on the name of St. Barbara, whom I would faithfully invoke as my mother had taught me that she can take care of all storms and thunders. But in the last five years I have not seen many thunder clouds, nor any incessent rain. It is all changing. Blame it on Climate-change!! Who is responsible? Will I get to see some good cool rain that can leave the earth wet and buzzling with activities of birds and butterflies?