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Barely a few months before we were praying to the rain gods for their favour to quench the thirst of our parched lands, now we are praying them to stop ‘pouring’ their bounty . For many, many years monsoon has been erratic and unpredictable in this part of the world. The entire country looks forward to the rainy season for relief from the oppressive heat of summer; pujas and yajanas are performed in many parts of the country to please the rain gods. This year, it seems the rain gods wanted to clear the backlog of pending requests of us Indians. It has been raining ‘cats and dogs’ since onset of monsoon season.
The rivers which had virtually dried up are in spate; all major and minor rivers from North to South and East to West are overflowing. Yamuna River has crossed danger mark in Delhi several times. Every day decades’ old records are being broken this year. Delhi has seen wettest monsoon since1978. With heavy rains in Northwest India, Delhi faces its worst flood threat this season. This situation doesn’t augur well as the country is preparing for Common Wealth Games in the capital. Incessant rains may have caused untold misery to many who are directly affected; it does give some relief to the organisers of the games as an excuse for their tardiness and delay in completion of games related projects.
Come rains and Delhi roads get waterlogged in no time. A 1/2hr rain is enough to trigger traffic jams in many areas of the city. It is jokingly said that even appearance of clouds in the sky causes water logging in some areas of Delhi. An annual ritual of de silting of drains is performed every year by MCD well before the onset of monsoon, still the first spell of rain pricks hole in the claims of MCD about their cleaning drive; heavy rains give them excuse that the drains in the city have capacity to carry only a certain amount, if that increases , it takes time for water to clear out.
On a serious note excessive rains this year have caused tremendous hardships to the people especially to those living on the banks of the rivers; they have become homeless and lost means of their livelihood. The fields are inundated with water spoiling standing crops and have rendered them unfit for growing next crop. Vegetables have become scarce; some veggies like spinach and coriander have disappeared altogether. The prices have all vegetables have shot up as never before adding misery to the common man’s life. Many people have lost their lives due to cloud burst in Himachal and Uttarakhand, in some hilly regions approach roads have disappeared. Villagers have suffered heavy losses of their livestock and other assets due to floods, their houses are damaged, their crops are damaged, firstly there were suicide cases because of no rains , now there can be suicides because of excessive rains.
Inexorable rains have brought another adversity to us in the form of diseases like dengue and malaria. The patients suffering from dengue are on the increase. The episodes of rains if not ceased will spell more disaster. Therefore, I suggest that once again some puja and yajana should be performed to please the rain gods, this time to abate their fury.
