The reservoirs are full. The fields are a brilliant, impossible green. The peacock—India’s national bird, which dances only when it rains—has performed its courtship one last time. The earth is soft. The air is clean.
It begins not with a drop, but with a smell. The saundhi —the ancient, earthy perfume of parched soil kissing the first rain. For six months, India has baked under a relentless sun, rivers shrinking to veins, fields cracking like old pottery. And then, the clouds gather over the Arabian Sea. monsoon season india
The monsoon is caused by a massive seasonal shift in wind patterns. As the Indian landmass heats up during the blistering summer, it creates a low-pressure area that draws in moisture-laden winds from the Indian Ocean. The reservoirs are full
First, Kerala. By late May or early June, the southwest winds deliver their cargo. Schoolchildren peer through rain-streaked windows. Fishermen pull their boats high onto the sand. And a nation collectively exhales. The earth is soft
And yet, when the clouds finally part in September, and the last retreating monsoon showers bid farewell over the Bay of Bengal, no one forgets what it gave.