The arrival of the monsoon

One of the events I always used to look forward to in childhood was the arrival of the monsoons. It meant suddenly the hot sun would no longer be seen for days together. Everywhere would be greenery. The walls between houses would turn black and green with the moss growing on it. If your house had a tin sheet roof, you would hear the first "TTUN TTUN TTUN" of the first drops, then would come the sudden "DDHUSSSSSHHHH" of the sudden downpour and when it ended, it would again be a "TTUN TTUN TTUN" dripping drops of the receding rain. The trees would sway and droop under the heavy rain. If there was a strong breeze, you could see the coconut and arecanut palms swinging to the side, almost uprooting themselves. Crows wouldn't be able to fly and would go haphazardly across the sky, flying sideways or backwards, against their will in front of the wind's strong fingers.

The drains would not be able to handle the deluge and overflow onto the road.There would be no difference between the flooded roads and drains. We would have a jolly time, walking in the rain, drowned to our little knees, dragging rubber slippers which would slip off and float away, once in a while. Then we would have to catch it back, before it flowed away. All kinds of wonderful things would float in the swiftly flowing water. In houses, you could see plastic buckets and cooking vessels kept under leaks in the roof. Wandering cows & goats would take shelter in bus shelters and in front of closed shops, alongwith people.
Then the rain would stop, and in the break, children would try to catch small fish and tadpoles in the drains.

Elections in Karnataka

We now have another new government in Karnataka. First it was the Congress, which was overthrown by the Janata Dal-BJP. Then came a Janata Dal government led by Kumaraswamy, followed by a very shortlived BJP government led by Yediyurappa. But then the Father-Son combo of Devegowda and Kumaraswamy torpedoed Yediyurappa's dream.This was followed by the Governor's rule and now the elections have brought in the BJP under Yediyurappa once again. Coming from Kerala, I could draw parallels between Devegowda-Kumaraswamy in Karnataka and Karunakaran-Muralidharan in Kerala.

It does provide for very interesting newspaper reading in the morning, wondering who is going to pull the rug out, from whose feet. More like one of those unending TV soap series. Takes your mind off the daily traffic deaths, the unaffordable fuel prices, the murders and rapes.

I have to confess that when in college, I got totally put off the BJP's ideologies by Advani's Rath Yathra, the Babri Masjid destruction and the riots. The riots following the Godhra massacre only reinforced this feeling. Though not a practitioner of any ideology, I always had an affinity for the ideas in Communism, of helping the poor with the rich people's money. This idealism has been tempered over the years by the practicality of capitalism. Without money making people, there would be no money to share with the poor. There were many things I didn't understand in Kerala. When the Communist party opposed capitalism so strongly, why didn't they create their own industries in their ideals, where there were no bourgeoise class, where there were only workers working for each others benefits, to provide employment to the hundreds of unemployed in kerala. They too have enough money to start a few industries of their own, but besides starting their own TV Channel and Print publications which are limited in scope in terms of employment perspective, there have been no significant employment generators.

Coming back to Karnataka, Everyone except one of the independents supporting him,have been made ministers. Wish I too had won a seat somewhere, then I too could have been made a minister. He'll need a referree, and many line referees to run this show smoothly. I doubt whether it will be smooth running, but I wish with all my heart, whoever is in power has a stable term, taking and implementing real positive changes in a normal citizens life.