Monsoon Madness

India's climate is dominated by monsoons, seasonal winds that bring torrential rainfall during the summer. This arrival of incessant rain brings both joy and pain.
Joy, because the year's water supply for millions of people largely depends on these huge yearly downpours which fill up the reservoirs and rivers. Indian Agriculture is so heavily dependent on these rains that even a few days of delay in the monsoon can affect the economy adversely.
Pain, as several calamities are caused due to the flooding, and navigating though the huge puddles, and zillion potholes on the streets is almost impossible. Unlike Seattle, the whole town stops for rain, all schools and several offices were closed for two days. I dared not venture outdoors with the fear of getting stuck, esp. in a tiny car and canceled all of my meetings. In someways ways, I can draw a parallel to the yearly snow fall in the suburbs of Seattle where traffic halts for hours and life comes to almost a standstill. Though, the kids have a lot more fun sledding down their neighborhood hills and making the most of their unplanned snow break.

More deep thoughts from a six year old

I love the 'curd-rice' at school, its the world's best curd-rice. I am the only one who eats the 'curd-rice' at school, the other kids just don't like it. ('curd-rice' is plain yogurt mixed with white rice and its a staple food in the south which the local kids find 'extremely boring' but a novelty for this kid :))

I sit next to a boy and a girl. The boy is Adaaarsh (an americanized mis-pronunciation of the name) and I don't know the name of the girl. All I know is that she talks like a baby (with a hint of disapproval. I am sure he knows her name but is refusing to acknowledge it :) )

Guess what! I met another American at the music school (anyone who talks like him is an american).

I don't want to ever go to China, the Dragon King might capture me (he just finished reading the 'day of the dragon king').

Today was my lucky day, I got pancakes for breakfast (I obliged after several requests for it).

Oh man! Why can't we go camping this weekend. Why don't we ever go camping in India? (unfortunately, Hyderabad doesn't have a lot of nature preserves, hiking, camping areas close by compared to Bangalore where eco-tourism and adventure travel options are available)

There are a lot of poor people in India. Can we give them money, so they are not poor anymore?

Is this a scary tale?

the headlines in the past two weeks have been unreal and its implications grievous. Multiple bomb blasts across 2 major cities, a train on FIRE, a major stampede --- all of these causing fatalities ranging from tens to hundreds.

I haven't regularly followed local news, politics and sports in India for over 17 years, so I am definitely behind on a lot of stuff. I could pass off as the dumb american :) except when it comes to business news. However, these recent events have given me a different insight into the country.

a) From an outsider's perspective, this country does seem to have a lot of continuous and serious issues - whether its political, infrastructure or resources, communal or terrorism.
b) Support given to people affected by these calamities is very limited. A lot of these calamities happen due to limited support in the first place. Again, the infrastructure and services needed to support a country of 1.1 billion is always going to be a daunting challenge and one that is not easily solvable anyway.
c) However, people seem to bounce right back and live with all of these issues and move on with life. There is also an informal support structure in the community that springs into action in times of need.

Again, I can't compare this to all the fatalities that have recently affected the US soldiers and the supporting cast in Iraq which is also equally distressing in its reach and impact.