PLAINS VERSUS HILLS

Give plume shaped purple flowers,
of  tiny thread like texture.

Back to the plains (Patiala) for a short visit for some urgent jobs. The experience is like stepping into a cauldron of heat and humidity and having sweaty baths during power cuts. Just a couple of miserly rain spells here, as if the area is out of favour of the  weather Gods. No option other than remaining closeted in an air conditioned room to avoid the stifling and still atmosphere. If there is semblance of wind movement it is hot and cagey. The roads are empty of people and going for a walk means bouts of perspiration. Hope there’ll be more rains to enable the farmers to transplant paddy and people to breathe easily.

Such flowery plants're thriving
at Kumarhatt

 Traditionally the period between middle of July to middle of August ( Sawan In the Bikramy calendar ) symbolizes celebrations, romance, longing, special cuisine and joy of togetherness, when newly married girls visit their myka    (parents’ home) to share some blissful moments and secrets of married life with their yet to be married friends. They enjoy swing rides, make merry, while cool and sensuously moist breeze, post rain revitalizes mind and body after the scorching heat of June.

A small mound covered with
sundry verdure at kumarha

 But things have changed and only nostalgia brings back those precious memories. The mad pace of modern life style in urban as well as rural space has robbed us of the pure pleasure of the festivals associated with changing seasons. Now we only see images of ‘Teej’ being celebrated formally at girls’ colleges or at some elitist Ladies formal functions. The community level convergence for participation and merriment have long been forgotten.

To cap it all nature also plays spoil sport as the deficient monsoon rains have caused misery and have rewritten all the statistics about the revival of India’s economy.

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My Tulsi plant 

Once again I’m back in the lap of shivalik hills (Kumarhatti). Here it rains almost every day and that has caused landslides and few inadequately laid out dwellings on upper slopes have been washed away. The paradoxes of nature are here to stay while they poke us to mull over some do-able issues.

The hill landscape is carpeted green once again and people’ve heaved a sigh of intense reprieve from the extended dry spell.