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THE DRY TIME In India, monsoon is referred to as "a season of winds;" when it arrives, it stays for four months. It is a season of rebirth and promise. Monsoon sends water to the desert. The land gets extremely hot (like 120o F. or so); the hot air rises and creates a vacuum. The ocean breeze comes in and forms clouds, and the rain drenches the land. The mountain forest gets about 20 inches of rain per year. Some parts of India average 38 feet of rain per year. Your brilliant writer watched a television program about the monsoon in India. It showed a land so dry it was nearly void of vegetation. The small reptiles would come out at night to look for insects. People (mostly women) walked for miles and miles to find water, usually muddy (and probably contaminated), to carry home on their heads. They were bare-footed, and dust puffs arose with each step. Their skin was parched, like the land where they lived. Their food supply became perilously low each year. There is always loss of life while they wait. Their only hope was that the monsoon would arrive soon enough. The land became hotter and hotter, the breezes came in from the sea, and the clouds began to form. The rain came! There was celebration, there were smiles, there was work! In the cities, there were umbrellas; in rural areas, only smiles. Growers could plant their rice, knowing that it would grow and be harvested before the next dry time. The parched land burst into new, green growth, followed by brilliant wildflowers. Frogs would emerge from their hibernation burrows. They would eat, mate, lay their eggs, eat some more, then dig their burrows for the next dry time. Birds built nests of dry grasses, mated, hatched, nurtured, and fed the small tender worms to their young. Water birds arrived in great flocks, and fed on the tiny fish that had waited for the water, hatched, and hadn't grown much. They built their nests, mated, and fed the new batches of tiny fish to their young. The remaining fish spawned and stored their eggs in the mud where they would hatch at the next monsoon. All the young birds were taught to fly, before the next dry time. The lives of the people and animals, as well as the plants, were lived according to the cycles of the monsoon. There is a kind of poetry to that rhythmic life-style. All living entities must adjust to the vagaries of nature, each area of our planet presenting different challenges. If we had no electricity, no heat or air conditioning, no motor transport, how would we be able to perform the duties that now fill our needs? A list of true necessities and ways to acquire them would provide deep insights into one of our most precious attributes: resourcefulness. Try it. Stock up (in your lists) all the things needed by you, your parents, your siblings, and your community, before the next dry time. Any problems with this page? Send URL to
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