Thursday, September 27, 2007

Forecasting

Kolkata has faced quite heavy rains over the last few days. But, this one is not about the rains, but the forecaasting with them. The met department at Alipore forecast a clear day Monday, based on the prediction that the atmospheric depression woul move towards Orissa. This, actually, was borne out by folks at a shipping compan who said that the weather pattern had actually moved away from West Bengal. But somehow, Kolkata received more massive rains on Monday, than it did on Sunday.
Not content with that, the met office predicted "Terrible Tuesday", with heavy rains, and guess what ... bright and sunny Tuesday. By then, though, Kolkatans were in s frame of mind that if someone switched on the fan, they got scared because they thought that it had begun raining again.
A beautiful phenomenon ... the Monsoons ... the harbinger of joy, of fertifility to a culture parched by the Summer ... when children love to get wet in the rain, when "Saawan ke jhoole lag gaye ...", has been converted into a scene where people have to wade through waist high water, and instead of sitting on the balcony, and enjoying garam-garam Chai, with Pakodas, they are wondering about how they will make it to the Office tomorrow. And all this, when we are celebrating the Incredible !ndia @ 60 campaign in New York ...

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