Tag: Climate Change

Kadvi Hawa.

Wikipedia translates the title Kadvi Hawa as Bitter Wind. I propose that it should be Ill Wind. “Something bad that happens and makes you think other bad things will happen.”

I had seen a trailer a couple of weeks ago when I had gone to see another film, and was intrigued by the performance of Sanjay Mishra, a character actor who usually plays supporting roles with elan.

In this, the story revolves around him and to that extent he is the lead player. And as can be expected, delivers a powerful performance as a blind and marginal farmer in a desolate area of India. Ranvir Shorey plays a remarkable supporting role as a debt collector. One more amazing but subdued performance from Konkona Sen Sharma rounds off the contributors, bar one more minor role from Bhupesh Singh which is inconsequential.

The director has been able to get some tremendous performances from a talented cast and the photography of the locale, the bad lands of the Chambal Valley in Rajasthan is breath taking.

With all this to support it and a very topical theme of Climate Change, the film should attract crowds. It does not and even I will not advice my readers to see it unless there is nothing else to do on an afternoon. The story line simply does not support such talent.

Summer.

INDIAN_SUMMER

“To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.”

~ George Santayana.

That reminds me.  I must go out and have some tender coconut water soon.

Historically throughout the month of April daytime temperatures will generally reach highs of around 37°C. At night the average minimum temperature drops down to around 20°C.

In recent times, not including this year, the highest recorded temperature in April has been 42°C that’s 108°F, with the lowest recorded temperature 11°C, about 51°F.

Normally the average daily relative humidity for April is around 38%.

This year, we are having a very unusual April with daytime temperatures around 30°C and minimums around 17°C.  Humidity has been lower too at around 36% despite having some showers, which too have been unusual.

Last year we were using our air conditioners or desert coolers quite regularly but this year we have not barring a couple of occasions during the afternoon siesta.

I don’t think that my friends Arun and Nirmala will have the missing husband problem this year around this time.  If however the normal summer reverts, they may well have a similar experience this year too, but much later than they had last year.

 

 

 

Rains.

Global warming and Climate change are two terms interchangeably used and or used to establish a cause effect relationship. I am not very well versed in this phenomenon but something that has been happening this year makes me want to learn more about it, and rather than interrupt what I am in the process of learning now, I shall save it for the immediate post surgery period in October.

In Maharashtra in India where I live, the rains traditionally should have left with the Visarjan festival which was on the 11th inst. As I write this, it is raining cats and dogs and the photograph on top and the one below are of the rain’s intensity in my small garden today. Our press reports that the monsoon has not withdrawn as usual, and is expected to continue till the end of September.

My regular reader, known to other readers as Cheerful Monk, has had forest fire followed by flash floods which caused much damage to her property. The Eastern Sea Board of the USA was lashed with hurricanes and the UK and Ireland have been lashed with high winds and rain the last two days. Texas is still experiencing bush fires due to drought conditions. In all these places, I have friends who have been affected one way or the other.

In Pakistan and North and North Eastern parts of India floods have been playing havoc and causing loss of lives and crops/property. Pakistan particularly has been experiencing much damage for the second year running.

My personal experience the last three years has been very erratic behaviour of the seasons in India and particularly where I live.

I believe that something needs to be done but as with most important matters regarding our earth and its inhabitants, politics plays an important part and I have decided to let events unfold and merely be a spectator. I suppose that I can afford to take that stance as unlike Cheerful Monk, I haven’t lost anything. Yet.

Climate Change.

As I write this, Pune where I live is colder than Mahabaleshwar. The latter is a hill resort about 800 Mts higher in the mountains than Pune and much cooler. Here is an article in the local news paper about this phenomenon.

There are other areas of India where lives are being lost due to cold wave conditions. Here is another article that talks about that reality,

I quote from a post by Madhav Khandekar – “There is an urgent need to analyze the impact of cold weather extremes the world over. In the 2002/03 winter, several hundred people died of long cold exposure, mostly in January 2003, in countries as far south as Bangladesh and Vietnam. Also in eastern Europe in January 2010, many people died in Poland and elsewhere due to extreme cold.”

I am convinced that climate change is now in full swing, as is obvious from the various bloggers’ experiences in the UK and the USA, as well as what is happening here.

I hope that Mike is reading this. What say Mike?