It is December. In the normal scheme of things, it it time for rains to pack their bags and bid us adieu. But they seem content to stick around and occasionally bless us of their bounty. Not anything too much, just a light shower here and there. I am not complaining about them staying back. Oh dear, no, no no. It is just the principle of the thing. When your time is up, it is best to up and leave and let the next in line play their role. That’s how it works. Or ought to work.

These days the mornings start off bright. The blue sky could not be any bluer. Closer to noon though, clouds gather. Sometimes they delay their appearance for until later. Like yesterday. It wasn’t until evening/dusk that the clouds decided to declare their intentions, and by nightfall there was a light shower. ‘There’s no news about any depression in the sea, nor any cyclones passing by. Then why is it raining?‘ asked the puzzled L&M.

Whenever there is a depression in the sea, or a cyclone miles and miles away from us, even as the people in those distant areas are gearing up for the challenge, we get to enjoy some rain. This time around though there had been an alert, a LOT of rain was going to happen, weathermen declared. Nothing of the sort happened. All was good. Or so we thought. Apparently something not so good had happened too.

Anticipating rising water levels from the great amounts of rains predicted by the weathermen, the reservoir shutters had been opened in advance, sending the released water on its way to the sea. The cyclone though forbore to gift us rain enough to fill the reservoirs back up to their original level. Result? A bleak outlook of severe water shortage in the coming summer months, the concerned minister says. So, rains now might be a good idea after all, certainly not the pitter-pattering kind, but the gushing, filling up the reservoir kind. Will the clouds oblige?

© Shail Mohan 2020