Rain in summer!

Rain in summer is welcome; it is a great relief from scorching heat, it brings a lot of joy and comfort. It brings about smiles as you can see in the above picture of my wife and our granddaughter in rain. We had two heavy spells of rain and cool breeze in Hyderabad in the last three days giving us a break from a fortnight of sweltering heat, hovering around 42 degrees Celsius. With the trees and plants in our house washed by rain and similarly the road in front of our house, the environment looks very bright and everything around us seems to glisten with beauty.

Unfortunately our happy experience with rain has been somebody’s misfortune. True to the popular adage “One man’s cure is another man’s poison”, the rain has created havoc in several districts of Telangana. These unseasonal, sudden rains and strong gales in the past three days have killed six people and destroyed crops in about 20,000 hectares. Paddy, maize, sesame, sunflower, mango, vegetable and many other crops are hit beyond salvage. Food grains and cotton bales stored in the open, at market yards and elsewhere are also damaged.

In conclusion and in such a complex situation all I can say and do is sympathize with the grieving farmers and wish that summer rains if any are mild; setting a cool breeze, but not gales, storms and floods.