Cold November Rain
Ever since the onslaught of global warming on God’s green earth; which of course did not happen overnight, but at least felt; after the world was ‘blessed’ by Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”; we have experienced nothing but “Hell on earth”, at least in this part of earth: Latitude: 21° 10' 0 N, Longitude: 72° 49' 60 E, i.e. our beloved Surat. 10 months of gruesome summer with a month or so of rainfall and some season with raging summer in daytime and winter afternoons at night! For both the past two years that I have spent in surat, this has been the fazing weather cycle.
This year was different; till now at least. Rains had over-whelmed arriving just on Indian Standard Time (sarcastically, of course!), but summer’s over-extended fury was still with temperatures soaring in the higher 30’s even through September and October. And then followed by a tiny butterfly’s flutter somewhere in the southern hemisphere (w.r.t. “The butterfly Effect”), or maybe a convenient low-pressure, moisture laden region developed in the Arabian sea coinciding with a relative high pressure region south of the “Tear-drop Island”, gave birth to a sinister and monishing cyclone, “Phyan”, which had almost the entire west coast of India literally on their heels.
They say there is a silver lining to every dark cloud in the sky; and so did this. While Phyan finally managed the Coast Guard boats to come out of the docks and actually spread some caution in the region, the nearby interior parts of the Western Indian Subcontinent were surprisingly blessed by the ever-so-welcomed dark cumulus clouds, dropping temperatures throughout the region by more than 10 degrees than normal; giving the cold-deprived junta of the western coast to experience the heavenly bliss of cloudy and cold days and nights, experienced mostly only the high hills.
No one was complaining; not even the fishermen whose daily bread; or should we call daily fish; was in grave danger. Every one welcomed the wonderful change in climate. Even the neatly folded wooly pull overs; which had been cramped up in the closet upstairs; managed to stretch up and do their actual job! Even while schools and colleges were shut down in the likely-to-be-hit parts of the states, all folks were enjoying every last crunch of this amazing nature’s gift. The “deep-fried farsan” houses must have had a record breaking business in the week; what more to enjoy than a steaming hot Samosa in the gently dripping drizzle and icy breeze!
And just when people finally hoped for a wonderful winter after almost 3 years, Phyan pardoned the “disaster ready” governments of the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, and drifted away to some uninhabited spot in the Arabian Sea; and took with it the marvelous weather, leaving behind the good ol’ blazing sun and the pathetic extended summer to us…
“ …. Nothing lasts for ever….. Even cold November Rain…… “
- Guns and Roses
