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Roaring Rain

My village river in spate


The teak that stood on a side of my house came down yesterday. It had to be felled before the cyclonic winds brought it down on our house. A tree that had stood there for some three decades lay flat on the ground in less than an hour. The lithe man who brought it down branch by branch is 74 years old, I am told. He did look old, though 74 might be hyperbole. He threw a rope over a tall branch of the teak with the help of a weight attached to the end of the rope and once the rope was tied securely on to the branch, the man climbed it up like a monkey. He was right on top in the wink of an eye.

The teak being felled
Winds are bringing a lot of trees down in Kerala these days. Every day we hear reports about the ravages of winds. Electric power fails because trees fall on the lines. The monsoon has just started. Monsoon in Kerala means incessant rains and constant power failures.

When I was a young boy, Monsoon in Kerala had similar incessant rains. But we went to school walking long distances in spite of such rains. There were no cyclones in those days. Where did the cyclones join the monsoon here? Climate change is the answer. “Nature writes back,” as environment magazine Down to Earth’s [DTE] latest cover says. 


The monsoon I knew as a boy didn’t carry “a malignant purpose in a nun’s eyes,” as poet Jayanta Mahapatra puts it in his poem ‘A Rain of Rites’ reproduced in DTE. The allegorical nun was benignant in the old world of my childhood. I remember the patter of raindrops on leaves that accompanied me as I walked more than 4 kilometres to school every morning, rain or no rain, and back in the evening the same way. And Kerala did have a lot of rains in those days, more than now. Yet our parents had no reason to worry about our safety.

Not so today. The district collectors declare holiday for educational institutions when the monsoon becomes a Medusa in fury. The rivers in the village have lost their melody and have become menacing monsters carrying plastic waste of all hues and shapes. And occasional branches of trees too, for a change.

The woodpeckers vanished long ago from the trees. Where have all the nestlings gone? There isn’t even a butterfly left to which I can sing along with Danyel Gerard: “Butterfly, my Butterfly / now I know you must be free / Butterfly, don’t flutter by / Stay a little while with me.”

They have fluttered by, the butterflies. The dragonflies too. Where have all the birds disappeared? Human greed dressed up as development has driven them all away. And now nature is “writing back.”

Kerala received 620% more rains already this monsoon, says my Malayalam newspaper this morning. When it rains, we get deluges. Otherwise, we have droughts. Nature is writing back vindictively.

If only we treaded with gentler steps, building not over nature, but alongside her… Perhaps the skies would breathe easier, the winds would wander in peace, and the rains wouldn’t be furies but blessings. Can’t we have progress that doesn’t roar but whispers, progress that’s green and wise? 


PS. This post is part of #BlogchatterBlogHop

 

Comments

  1. A season for extremes, be it politics or weather!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The IMD has forecast above-average rainfall across the nation this monsoon. Bengaluru and coastal Karnataka too has been getting heavy rains. The sky is bit clear today after many days.
    Tree fall is very common here as well. One sad aspect is that every year some people lose lives after trees fall on their car or autorickshaw. That's quite scary.
    Generally weather patterns have gone awry all across the world. Difficult to predict anything.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed it is a global phenomenon. Matters are made worse with poor urban planning, illegal constructions, and levelling of hills and lakes.

      Delete
  3. Hari Om
    Nature is not one to be stopped when her ire is up. YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Weather and its vagaries and its fury apart, I was elevated and enwarmed by your portrayal of the graceful and lithe young man, the village woodcutter and his art, which introduces your blog. The rope and also the axe, his partners, at-hand... Yes. The Nature does write back... A boomerang effect. Humans have to become wiser, to listen to the cry of the Planet, being denuded and degreened.. thanks to the greed of the rational animals. Gods cannot lift the curse. Only humans can...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That man was doing this job from his youth onwards. He's an expert now. à´¨ിà´¤്à´¯ാà´­്à´¯ാà´¸ി ആനയെ à´Žà´Ÿുà´•്à´•ും.
      I was quite surprised, however, by his way of doing it at his age.

      Delete
  5. It all goes together, doesn't it? The world moans under the pressure of us, but rather than trying to fix things, we double down.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We seem so incapable of learning the essential lessons.

      Delete
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