Monsoon Musings

As India Looks Hopefully Towards The Skies For The Rains To Answer All Of Its Woes, Team Culturama Captures The Indian Monsoon And All You Need To Get Through It In Style

Did you know that the word monsoon comes from the Arabic mawsim or season? 

Sailors plying ancient sea trade routes to India calculated the best times to take advantage of the seasonal winds while avoiding storms and gales. India’s economy is mainly agrarian and depends heavily on the monsoons for its health. A good season has a cascading effect on crops, power, industry, the stock market and the GDP of the country. A good monsoon gives one an ‘all is well’ feeling. Much column and inch space in newspapers and bandwidth on television is given over to predicting its strength and course. As the dark clouds gather on the horizon, the country moves smoothly into monsoon mode and adopts ways of life and jargon suited for the season.

Rain is a given. What is in doubt is the quantity. Too much brings floods and destruction, too little means a drought year. Like Goldilocks’ porridge, it has to be just right. Authorities in many cities are serious about rain water harvesting, and it is paying off.

Monsoon essentials

There are two monsoon seasons in India. The south-west monsoon starts in June and goes on till around August in most of India, while the reverse, the north-east one, brings rain in October–November to the eastern coast. Being prepared is the best way to enjoy the Indian monsoon. The south-west monsoon makes landfall in God’s Own Country, Kerala, the southern-most Indian state. Traditionally, it sets in on June 1, give or take a day or two. A normal monsoon is usually amazingly punctual. Cyclones are an accepted part of the monsoon experience, too. Low-pressure troughs form in the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea or the Bay of Bengal and sometimes turn nasty. Rural areas bear the brunt of the furious winds, while cities are more or less safe. But live wires pose a threat, so power is often shut down during cyclones.