Hyderabad’s Rainy Season of 2009 has arrived!

This year we did not have any intermittent or at least one summer shower in Hyderabad to give us some relief in 3 months of severe heat. The day temperature was mostly 40 to 42 deg. Celsius on most days causing a lot of inconvenience. And more so when there was power shedding. In my very first blog in April this year, I wished for some summer showers and as it did not happen for weeks I was disappointed. I was following the weather reports which first said that Southwest monsoon would hit Kerala by 24th May and reach Hyderabad by about 29^th May. Then the reports said ‘Aila-Cyclonic storm’ had diverted the Southwest monsoon from Andhra causing so much destruction to life and property in Orissa, West Bengal and Bangladesh.

After waiting so long, finally, the Southwest monsoon arrived in Hyderabad yesterday around 4:00 PM. It rained in two spells with a short gap in-between up to 10:30 PM. The temperature came down immediately and the evening and night were pleasant. As it began to rain I took out my 3-year old granddaughter Sudhiksha out of the house and we got partially wet in the rain. She was giggling all the time. Last year she was not very willing to come out in the rain. Then I made some paper boats for her which she left in the stream of water flowing along our compound wall. Last year also she played a lot with paper boats but was not willing to step into the stream of water all alone, we had to hold her. This year she stepped into the stream herself and was enjoying stomping the water. There are bound to be more rains and she is going to enjoy more. Yesterday’s rain was a surprise; it happened suddenly so we missed the hot snacks we prefer to have sometimes when it rains in the evenings.

I keep my garden plants bright and healthy using a watering-shower can but the few big trees specially a huge creeper tree we have catch dust in summer and tend to look unhealthy. With yesterday’s rain the trees are looking very bright today morning. However the rainy season also causes chaos in the city, there are frequent power disruptions, water logging on streets and in low lying residential areas and traffic jams due to stagnation of water on main roads and vehicles breaking down.

Today is Mrigasira Karti. As per local customs we have to eat fish on Mrigasira day. So I went out early in the morning to a nearby Super market and bought fish. We had fish-fry for lunch and dinner.

On this day every year and since decades ‘Free Fish Medicine’ is given to thousands of Asthma patients at Hyderabad by the Bathini family. There are controversies regarding this medicine which is first put into a live fish and then the patient is made to swallow the live fish. In spite of the controversies people come to Hyderabad from all over the world for this medicine.

I strongly expected it to rain today and that is what the weather reports also said but it turned out to be a sultry and hot day. I hope the days ahead will bring in substantial rains.