No Cloud In The Sky

We did a one day trip to Coorg. Its green, pretty, and a refreshing change from our traffic ridden lives, as usual...


But right through the monsoon, its really rained just 5-6 days so far :( Of course, then it poured, and one particularly bad 2 day spell saw 20 inches dumped all over with consequent flooding, damage and at the end, not even enough groundwater since the ground, after all, has a maximum seepage rate and this leads to a lot of runoff.

My friend there told us about a little piece of knowledge the Coorgis have gained through experience - a light rain and windy conditions is what keeps the springs going and the streams flowing! Am still trying to figure that one out, but will trust local knowledge on that.

My prayers for Coorg, a good sane monsoon and for all of us. The rivers we take for granted, and the rains that we assume will feed them year open year - nothing is a certainty in the dramatically changing climatic conditions anymore.

There is a keenness to try and understand the North Pole, the ice sheets and the general impact of warming, changing ocean currents, etc. Perhaps we all need to start having those conversations as well.

Come the rains...

Governance, governance, bad roads.

Such articles make an appearance around this time of the year, every year.
Does it matter who's running things, if nobody is at all ?
I think a lot's been done at a micro level - roads have been repaired, drains cleaned - but its the overall civic/town planning that does not exist at all - and they velleys and natural drainage systems have been interfered with all over Bangalore. I don't even think the guys running the show can think at that level of complexity/abstraction. The problem's bigger than them.