As most of you will agree with me the topic of “weather” (like in Sunshine or Rain) is without any doubt still the most common topic whenever people meet or talk on the telephone. Who has not talked to somebody at one time long-distance and inevitably the question comes “how is the weather over there with you?”
Here in Kerala we are now smack in the middle of the Monsoon Season. Having complaint about the heat for a few months we now have a new topic – Rain! (as in … too much) surely bringing much needed relief to the people, animals, agriculture etc. But, like everything else, too much of one good thing turns easily and quickly into something negative.
The heavy monsoon rain has been pelting down for a few weeks now turning our beautiful Kerala into an even greener oasis. But a more or less uninterrupted extremely heavy downpour over the week-end also brought even bigger traffic chaos, landslides, etc.
On Monday morning we had to drive to the Airport for something which could not be put off and it simply became a sort of “mini journey to hell”. We passed many flooded houses, churches, temples etc. on our way. Many of the low-lying fields were completely flooded; the cattle grazing there were standing in flood water nearly up to their stomach.
On route we had to cross the bridge over the mighty river Periyar. The rain was hitting us hard – the windscreen wipers on our car could hardly cope with the deluge and there was absolutely no way that we could stop and get out to photograph the raging river, which had risen considerably and now looking brown, muddy and quite dirty, bringing the water from the mountains down to Ernakulam (Cochin).
So this is the reason my friends, why for once you will not see any photographs from our own “manningtreearchive”. But luckily I was able to get this impressive photograph (which also appeared over 2 pages this morning in the paper) from the picture desk of our newspaper Malayala Manorama Daily. My thanks goes out to them.
Carina
Anyone 4 Curry & Other Things 
That makes me glad to live on a hill!
hm, we were ok (only traffic!!!) but other people……..
I know what you mean – we too have had/are having a very wet monsoon which is creating havoc in the upcountry areas even though we here in Colombo are really only experiencing intermittent and fairly mild storms. I keep thinking “the dams are all full now, let the rains stop for a while and let the poor people mop up a bit, and resume their lives”, then I think of the three years of failed monsoons we had a while back, and wonder which is worse? 🙂
I can hardly believe it – this morning bright sunshine – the world looks a happier place now.
I too like you got the brunt of the monsoon violence ! I was travelling out of town, and had to turn back almost two hours into my journey. The main streets in Pala town were totally inundated in knee deep water. I saw young boys merrilly rowing their small boats in a rubber plantation submerged in water. I dont think we – in our safe places do not fully comprehend the havoc , especially for those unfortunate families living in low lying areas who have lost everything . Despite the bright sunshine – things are not quite so bright in some parts of our state !
I have friends holidaying in your part of the world and their main topic of conversation on skype is the rain
Do you have more problems with the mosquitoes in monsoon season?
Wow, that’s a lot of water! I hope it lets up soon…
yes, the monsoon has eased up somewhat – still raining heavily during the night, but now mostly sunshine during the day.
Wow, that is a very impressive photo indeed. You can certainly have too much of a good thing. 🙂
How quickly paradise turns to something else. Hopefully, not for much longer. 🙂
I’ve been in minor floods a few times but nothing like a true monsoon season. Be safe and healthy, my friend! The respite cannot come too soon, I’m sure.