Monsoon Clouds
Monsoon clouds over a new highway under construction. Madurai.
“This year we had a good monsoon season.” The sort of thing my parents (in India) would say when I call them. If you live in interior Tamil Nadu (or for that matter interior anywhere), you don’t have to be a farmer, to feel the anticipation, anxiety, and the prayers of the people for the monsoons. It’s one thing to see it on the news, and it’s another to see people always talk about it (at the tea stall, your vegetable vendor, driver, etc).
Meanwhile we have people in the cities who don’t give a hoot about the environment and the greenhouse effect. Like those who make mockery of rural farmers (their rituals for propitiating rain), and then go out driving their greenhouse-causing super-sized vehicles and super-sized houses.
We should at least take time to remember where the food comes from (at least do so in Pongal, the one celebration that makes you remember that; just like Thanksgiving Day does in the USA).