Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Monsoon is approaching………………..

Well, the IPL entertainment is over now…..and the mother of all entertainment is about to start for next few months…..you guessed it right….yes, I am talking about Monsoon…which covers the entire India by making an entry from the Indian ocean.

I am sure that few of you would take exception on the word I have used earlier i.e. ‘Entertainment’ for the monsoon. But hey relax….I am just coming out from the hangover of IPL entertainment so I am still in that mode….you see…

But hang on….if you look at the romantic side of the monsoon…..isn’t it mother of all entertainment? Okay, let me ask you one question….when you think about monsoon, what are the thoughts which come to your mind? First rain……first drive in the rain with her….drinking ginger tea after eating mouthwatering bhajis (pakodas)……that romantic walk in the rain with your partner in the clouds at Mahabaleshwar……just freaking out with your friends at Lonavala…..dancing like a kid in the rain with your kids….what not….this list can go on and on…isn’t it? Of course few would also want to add things like: getting wet everyday while going to office on your bike…..no outdoor activities without getting wet….no cricket…flood water every where….traffic jams….and so on… So, this list can also go on…..But at this moment I want to concentrate only on the positive side….or rather romantic side of it…

Years after years we keep on hearing predictions on rainfall…..arrival dates of the monsoon…etc. If you have grown up in rural areas of Maharashtra (just like me), you could see the expressions/excitement on the farmer’s face and of course not to forget their fight to complete the farm landing tasks in time before the rain god starts pouring….The farmers actually predict the percentage of the rainfalls based on their experience. They observe lot of things around before the rainy season. These could be various parameters starting from the behavior of birds, cows, buffalos and other animals….colurs in the sky….wind and so on…Now, we have developed lot of methods/techniques to actually predict the rainfall using the systems….if you are from coastal side then you also know that even fishers (kolis) use their own parameters to judge the behavior of the sea based on monsoon…..

So, from where this monsoon comes and how does it cover whole India? Isn’t interesting or rather a phenomenon? Yes, it is. I don’t want to go into much details as I am not the right person to comment on it….as far as we are concerned, monsoon starts from the Indian Ocean. It is again classified into two streams as south-west summer monsoon (our monsoon) and North-east monsoon.

South-west Summer Monsoon: Typically, it is expected to hit western coast of India in the first week of June only. Again, there are two streams or rather branches as they call of South-west monsoon. The first one is Arabian Sea branch and second is Bay of Bengal branch. In case you get confused then allow me to tell you that Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal are the regions of India Ocean on the west side and east side of India respectively. Btw, did you know that Indian Ocean covers about 20% of the water on the earth and yes of course warm water……Any ways, the Arabian sea branch hits our Kerla typically by 1st June then it continues its journey towards northern India. Bay of Beangal Branch of south-west monsoon flows over Bay of Bengal heading to North East.

This is the latest satellite photo indicating the current state of monsoon waiting to hit the west coast.


North-east monsoon: This is the journey back to the Indian ocean from where it started…..Isn’t it? Typically a southern state like Tamilnadu receives north-east monsoon rainfall usually in September or so.

Well, now that you are aware of the types/branches of the monsoon and the kind of entertainment it provides to us…..don’t forget to enjoy this monsoon…..It comes to meet us once in the year ….i don’t know since when…probably few million years ago???

Enjoy with care….

Cheers,
Amol