Unusual weather conditions

By the time spring flowers wilted away, the rains would descend on us and the fields would be full of water. Ever since I was a little girl that had been the most familiar sight. For months it would rain. Ching-Yan, the old man living in the small house in the small field next to us had often told me of times when people from neighboring countries had come to us because they had had no rains and their fields were dry and their cattle dead. But we had thick, lush growth and fertile soil. We often had to wade through ankle-deep water and now and then through knee-deep water. We were all used to it. still, if the downpour became very heavy, schools would close and some people in low-lying areas would take out their dinghies. So life continued.

This year something had gone wrong somewhere. The sky persisted in continuing to be clear and blue; and the river continued to shrink until it was difficult to imagine that the thin trickle had once been a river. First people had merely waited, then anxiously scanned the skies, then prayers were said. The paddy fields were empty and barren and appeared as a stretch of parched land.

The trees had an autumnal look and the plantation shrubs were mere stubs. Day after day this continued. Prices which had been gradually rising, now reached new heights. Electricity cuts were introduced and drinking water was being doled out. Then the authorities arranged for wells to be dug. This provided some relief but we were all so unused to the excessive summer heat and the accompanying drought that we were miserable.

People started leaving their homes. Life lost all its normalcy. Fresh vegetables were not available at all. It seemed that the land would never be green again and the fields would never sprout. We were without rain, the greenery, the freshness of life and the ordinary necessities of life. Schools closed down, and medical units shifted in. The unprecedented drought had also its victims. We no longer recognized our surroundings; we were strangers to our friends and neighbors. Water became the most valuable commodity and – a bath or a clean change became rare.

I shall always remember those dreary dry months when we always hoped for a miracle. Only the miracle simply didn’t take place. People came forth with all kinds of explanations and superstitious beliefs and primitive cures. Meteorological experts were bewildered by the way their forecasts were proven wrong. It was a living nightmare. It was as if we all had stopped living. Then all of a sudden the clouds gathered and the blessed rain descended on us.