Magical Monsoon rain from God's Own Country, Kerala, INDIA !

Ever since my early childhood days in Kerala (where I grew up in a rural village) I had been fascinated by the monsoon rains. My long 25 years stint away in Europe added a mysterious touch to it. After re-locating to India almost 5 years ago I now have made it a point to observe this amazing phenomenon when ever and where ever possible. The monsoon rain is something Westerner´s need to experience in order to understand it fully. In the last few years it has become a big attraction for the foreign tourist´s who is visiting Kerala and India. This is what Vickipedia, the famous free encyclopedia on the Internet has to say about monsoon: "A monsoon is a wind pattern that reverses direction on a seasonal basis. The term was originally applied to monsoonal winds in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. The word is also used to label the season in which this wind blows from the southwest in India and adjacent areas that is characterized by very heavy rainfall, and specifically the rainfall that is associated with this wind.

The southwest monsoon is generally expected to begin around the middle of June and dies down by September. It is said that it begins first in the coastal state of Kerala and moves upwards at a rate of roughly 1-2 weeks per state. The monsoon accounts for 80 percent of the rainfall in the country. Indian agriculture (which accounts for 25 percent of the GDP and employs 70 percent of the population) is heavily dependent on the rains, especially crops like cotton, rice, oilseeds and coarse grains. A delay of a few days in the arrival of the monsoon can, and does, badly affect the economy, as evidenced in the numerous droughts in India in the 90s"

Hope this proves to be useful to you all. I shall add a few photos demonstrating the ferocity of monsoon rain here in Kozhikode soon. All of them will be taken during and after the heay rain we are currently having. I look forward to your feedbacks in due course. Take care and God Bless!

Cheers,
Kris Kandath