the clouds above me sing and dance

like they are caught in a trance

Hello monsoon, goodbye mangoes!

Published: Wednesday, Jun 1, 2011, 3:55 IST By Joanna Lobo | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA


While the approaching monsoons are welcome, it also means that the mango season is coming to an end.

Keeping in mind the high cost of mangoes, the homes that can afford the fruit… are either very rich, have ancestral property and accompanying mango trees in small villages, or are friends of the above two categories.

In my case, I was lucky to be born in a house in Goa that had a variety of mango trees dotting its garden. Easy to pluck and eat. We just had to stand below the tree and collect mangoes that fell outside the basket.

At that time, we had a mud-covered-with-cow dung floor in certain rooms of the house. The mangoes would be lovingly laid out on newspapers and placed on the floor, taking care to see that they do not touch each other. A full count was taken before or after depending on the quantity. Then after deciding how many had to be kept aside for relatives and certain privileged friends, we would be allowed in the sacred space.

Since the process would take considerable time, by the time we kids had permission to eat, we were hungry. Mango-hungry! There was no time to stop and take in the beauty of a near-ripe mankurad mango, the firm skin, the pale yellow-green colour and its heady aroma. The more wrinkled the skin, the tastier the mango was my policy for choosing my ‘share’. If an adult was around - and they generally were - we had to carefully wash them, cut them and eat them like civilised people at the dining table: in plates, with a separate plate for the skins and seed.

If no adult presence was there — easily arranged by eating mangoes when they were asleep — then it was all hands go.

Manners and cleanliness went for a toss. The mangoes were eaten whole, with the skin, without bothering to wash them. Face and clothes slathered in mango juice, the abundant threads of the mango sticking between our teeth, we had competitions over who could clean the seed the best. No help could be taken here, although when my grandmother or grand-aunt joined us, they would use spoons or knives to compensate for their lack of teeth.

The winner would get an extra mango, but then so would the rest, so essentially the competition did not make much sense.

It is with relish that I looked forward to every mango season. The craving increased when I moved to Mumbai. Then I began looking out for people travelling from home who could carry my precious fruit parcel.

When I heard that the mango prices in the season just gone by had crossed an unaffordable Rs500 per kg, I knew it was only mankurad mangoes from our tree that would satisfy my craving.

As if in answer to my prayers, a school friend landed up at my home last week with 25 mangoes. The season is nearly over. But the mangoes stored in my fridge and which complete a meal for me, made the whole wait, completely worthwhile.

India's monsoon rains hit mainland two days early

By Ratnajyoti Dutta

NEW DELHI | Sun May 29, 2011 8:21am EDT

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's annual monsoon rains have hit the southern state of Kerala two days earlier than expected, weather officials said on Sunday, boosting prospects for a harvest that could spur Asia's third-largest economy.

The July-September monsoon irrigates 60 percent of India's farms and good rains will brighten hopes for a bumper harvest that should ease high food prices and boost the purchasing power of the 600 million Indians dependent on agriculture.

Higher farm supplies could also encourage the government to allow wheat and rice exports, restricted since 2007 to boost domestic supplies to fight high food prices.

"It's been raining over the Kerala coast and over the Andaman sea," a senior official of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) told Reuters, declining to be named as he is not authorized to speak to the media.

The monsoon generally hits the mainland around June 1 and covers the rest of India by mid-July. The weather office predicted earlier it would arrive in Kerala on May 31.

They have forecast a normal monsoon this year, which would give India rainfall of between 96-104 percent of the 50-year average of 89 cm (35 inches) during the four-month period.

Predictions have often been proved wrong in the past, most recently two years ago when the IMD failed to predict the worst drought in nearly four decades. But if the forecast is right, 2011 will see the second straight year of normal rains.

Monsoon reaches Kerala

The monsoon has arrived in Kerala. Heavy rains have been reported since Saturday night in the central and southern districts of the state, an official of the India Meteorological Department said. Rains have also hit some parts of Tamil Nadu, south Bay of Bengal and south Andaman Sea, the official sa
id on Sunday.

Kumarakom, the pristine tourist destination in Kerala, has recorded the heaviest rainfall of 12 cm, he said.

An IMD report said that conditions were favourable for the advance of southwest monsoon over some more parts of the Arabian Sea, remaining parts of Kerala, some more parts of Tamil Nadu, south Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea and some parts of Karnataka during the next two-three days.

2005 onwards the IMD has been issuing forecasts on the onset of monsoon over Kerala using an indigenously developed statistical model. For the last six years the forecasts based on this model have been correct.

AAU study to find astrological impact on monsoons

Syed Khalique Ahmed Tags : Ananda Agriculture University, L D Chimote, Vice-Chancellor A M Sheikh Posted: Tue May 10 2011, 04:29 hrs Ahmedabad:


Anand Agriculture University (AAU) scientists are conducting a study to see if the movement of Sun and stars has an impact on the occurrence of rains.

The study aims to blend astrology and meteorology to predict the quantum of rainfall in a particular year — whether it will be a good monsoon or a drought year.

AAU has already distributed the astro-meteorlogical almanac, prepared by Pune-based astrologer L D Chimote, to sarpanchs and talatis of all the 18,000 villages across Gujarat. The villagers and the talatis have been asked to fill in details like the quantum of rainfall and how long it rained, on a daily basis in the calendar and report it to AAU at the end of every month.

Vice-Chancellor A M Sheikh told The Indian Express that the daily rainfall data received from all villages as per the astro-meteorological calendar will be collected and compared with 100 years rainfall data of 200 rainfall stations across Gujarat. AAU will then study and analyse as to what extent does astrological movements affect rainfall.

Sheikh said if the rainfall recorded is 60 per cent or above than astrological predictions, the predictions will be considered successful. Sheikh said a correction prediction of onset and withdrawal of monsoon as also distribution of rainfall will enable scientists to know if it will be a drought year or if there will be floods. “We can prepare a contingency agricultural plan and inform the farmers to change the crops,” said Sheikh.

monsoons

NEW DELHI: Monsoon rains are likely to hit the southern coast, as expected, on May 31, a weather office source said on Friday.

The four-month long rainy season starts over the Kerala coast and covers the rest of India and neighbouring countries by mid-July. The rains are crucial for the country's agriculture sector and influences any growth prospect.

The source said the monsoon rains were likely to arrive over the Andamans coast around May 20.

THE RAIN GODS

India Inc too invokes the rain god
Partha Sinha & Namrata Singh, TNN, Apr 22, 2011, 07.09am IST

MUMBAI: Amid a series of negative factors that have been affecting the business and market sentiment over the last few months, the Meteorological Department's forecast of a normal monsoon this year has come as a breath of fresh air for corporates and brokers alike.In case the country receives rainfall as per the Met's estimates, it could help the government tackle the inflationary situation more easily by limiting food price inflation, which in turn could moderate hikes in interest rates in the economy, analysts said.The government said on Tuesday that the June-September monsoon this year would be about 98% of the long-period (50-year) average, with an error range of +/-5%. The agriculture sector depends largely on good monsoons for its growth and is, therefore, specially beneficial to the rural economy. It also said that a more detailed forecast will be presented in June, including estimates of the regional distribution.While a normal monsoon is generally positive for the economy as a whole, this is especially favourable to FMCG, consumer goods, two wheelers and small car companies since they are pushing hard to enter the rural market. Leading FMCG players like Hindustan Unilever and Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) will benefit when rural markets prosper. HUL derives around 40% of its turnover from rural markets."A normal monsoon is very good for the FMCG sector," said Adi Godrej, chairman, Godrej Group. "A good monsoon does lead to higher growth in FMCG offtake, especially in rural areas. GCPL's rural business salience is around 30%," he said.Agrees R S Sodhi, MD, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), maker of 'Amul' brand of products. "We are forecasting an increase of 8-10% in milk production this year. A good monsoon would assist in achieving this target," Sodhi said.A normal monsoon also drives agricultural and dairy sectors, he added.A normal monsoon should also help in moderating agricultural inflation, said Indranil Sen Gupta, economist with DSP Merrill Lynch. "This should help douse agflation after two years of weather shocks," Sen Gupta said. "If rains are indeed normal, agflation—currently 10.7%—should cool off in the second half of 2011 and enable inflation to peak off as well. This, in turn, will allow the RBI to pause after 100 basis points of rate hikes till October," he added.In a report, Edelweiss Capital, however, warned that in the past "there have been instances of large deviations between projected and actual rainfall". But it added that international agencies have forecast that La Nina, a global weather condition that often plays havoc with the Indian monsoon, would also weaken in the Pacific equatorial region over June, the month when the rains first hit India.On the negative side, broking houses pointed out, the spatial distribution of rainfall is also important. In addition, brokers are also hoping that a repetition of 2009—when compared to a forecast of 96%, the actual rainfall was 77%—does not occur this year.