Winds of Change
Am talking about winds only. Winds that have changed the weather entirely. That have disturbed the season cycle so much so that now I have to remind myself that I am living in Delhi. The Delhi which was never extremely hot, extremely cold or extremely humid et al. A couple of years back, Delhi used to have regular seasons. Yes, the winters used to be quite cold and the summers quite hot and then the rains would come lashing down. But all this used to happen with a certain finiteness and regularity. There were no major fluctuations like we have seen in the past couple of years with the winters starting only when they were supposed to end! Summers were as bad as they would be in Rajasthan. Rains have no timing or mm attributed to them anymore. Everything is random. It’s as if God’s weather changing software has started picking up a random type and time (within limits so that we dont get summer in winter and vice versa) for each season.
Just day before yesterday, winds changed the face of Delhi yet again. Cyclonic disturbances were the cause of sudden rain, lightening and also hailstorm (in gurgaon). The usual followed. Traffic snarls, water logging etc. But it wasn’t so bad. That night, I experienced the strongest winds I had ever experienced (the previous record being held by Pune, when I actually felt that I might fall down because the wind force was so much against me). In the middle of the night, the winds came blasting in. The whole neighbourhood’s doors/windows were banging. Objects were falling off because of the sheer force and adding to the noise. The sound that the wind generates was yet another eerie sample of what was to come. For the first time I felt as if the building would just blow apart because of the high velocity of the cyclonic winds swooshing right in.
The next day found Delhi in a mess. Trees uprooted in several places. The barricades for the road widening happening at NH-8, collapsed on the road, occupying a major chunk of the road. Electric poles bent/fallen in places. Water logging showed a desi version of Venice. One could actually take a boat and cover distance without rowing. There was so much flowing water.
But the point is not the mess. The point is the irregularity with which seasons are changing. This year, I would’t have been surprised if Delhi had experienced snowfall. After all several places in HP got untimely snow this year (on the onset of summer) and that too after a big number of years. The last time that the rains had lashed with this fury, our office faced one of the biggest stops in its daily business. Though we got an instant holiday then, hope it doesn’t do the same this year!!