The Monsoon Kaleidoscope

30th day of May, the year 2011, I sip my hot tea in the pleasant early morning breeze, the only time of the day when you are not dying to get into an air-conditioned room, with the morning newspaper in my hand my attention is drawn to one of today's headlines "Much awaited southwest monsoon sets in over Kerala, 3 days before normal".

Ah! I smile to myself, finally the curtains falls on the terrible summer nights for this year and the nature brings to us an amazing kaleidoscope of sights around the country.

I have had the good fortune of having traveled the length and breadth of the country thanks to my father, a civil engineer & a bridge builder. When I was little, we used to live in this small village in Himachal, a few hours drive from the railway junction of Pathankot. He was building a bridge across a stream, so once he was done with his days’ work he would have to cross the stream on a Jeep to get home. If the monsoon rains were kind to him, he had to wait for only few hours for the water in the stream to recede, before he could think of setting on his journey home to his family through the treacherous terrain of hilly slush……..and we complain about the traffic snarls on a weekday at Hafeezpet , Lingampally and Kukatpally!!!!!

I have very fond memories of the monsoon in this little port town in Orissa called Paradip, where I have spent few of my carefree childhood days. I especially remember many of my trips to the sloping beaches. The combination of the looming dark monsoon clouds and the rough sea waves used to make the sea look majestic & terrifying at the same time.

My drive to school in Paradip during the monsoon was also quite memorable as well. The location of our school was quite exotic to be very frank. It was at the edge of the confluence of the river Mahanadi and the Bay of Bengal. Our daily trip to school involved a long drive on this metaled road running next to the sea. The only thing separating the sea from coming on to the road was these huge boulders rising upto a meter high. Due to the strong wind during the monsoon days, the rough sea waves would violently break into the boulders and spill over on to our car’s windshield.

As they say nature can tame nature. In its journey across the Indian subcontinent, the rain laden monsoon cloud generally submits itself to another amazing natural creation……..the Mighty Himalayas. The mighty heights of the Himalayan range on our northern precincts serves as a bouncing pad for the low lying monsoon clouds. I vividly remember the sights atop 13050 ft (3948 m) above sea level at a pass called the Rohtang Pass on one of my holidays in Himachal. Apart from being the passage way to the amazingly scenic Lahaul and Spiti valley, Rohtang Pass also serves as a point where you can witness the northern limits of the monsoon clouds. From here, if you look south you could find tropical vegetation, thanks to the monsoon rains and to the north you could see cold the deserts of Lahaul and Spiti. The rain bearing clouds cannot pass through any further and thus the drastic difference in the terrain.

In April 2006 I joined the Talwade office of Capgemini in Pune, erstwhile Kanbay. Anyone and everyone who have visited our Talwade office would agree to the fact it is located in no-man’s land and have brooded over its remoteness. It used to be at least 7-8 km away from any decent habitation, wonder if it is still the same. Looking out from the office windows, one could only see the barren hilly slopes of the Western Ghats. Once the monsoon hit us, I was really amazed as to how the barren slopes were completely transformed into Shangri-la. Picture perfect lush green & uninhabited slopes with no manmade structures blocking the view, one could have easily mistaken it for some place in the Alps.

Such transformations are not uncommon during the Monsoon, on the contrary its common place.  Last year with some friends of mine we made this trip to the Nagarjuna Sagar . Like any other day characteristic during the monsoons, it was an overcast, windy & drizzly day. We had ventured on the choppy ferry ride to the island museum. The view of the sea like Nagarjuna Sagar from the small island with its water imitating the colours of heavily overcast sky reminded me of Loch Ness in Scotland.

These are some of the places in India I have been fortunate enough to see being transformed with the Monsoon magic & hope to keep discovering many more. Hope you too will discover some this monsoon.

Enjoy the monsoons!