Monsoon time

It is the time of the year everybody in India is eagerly looking forward to - monsoon time. Monsoon not only brings lot of water; it also brings lot of interesting things (see below). It is the single biggest event of the year for farmers like me because it makes or breaks the plans for the next whole year. Everything gets delayed if monsoon is delayed. Year is ruined because of lack of water if monsoon is short. Lives and property lost if monsoon is in excess. Therefore, our lives hang in fine balance setup by monsoon!

So far (June-2017) monsoon had been disappointing for South India this year. Government statistics say our district (Shimoga district in Karnataka state) had 40% less rain this year compared to long term average. However, it has started raining well in last few days. Hopefully it will pick up now and cover up the shortage in rest of this monsoon season.

Some pictures of this monsoon:

One day came out of the house and found this beautiful orchid on a tree in front of the house. Such a beautiful creation of nature it is. See the close-up for more details of the compound flower. Pictures are not as good as I wanted them to be - continuous rain and less than satisfactory light conditions because of heavy cloud cover interfered with my efforts of taking better pictures.

Orchid in front of the house

Closeup

Very wet conditions created by the monsoon bring up lot of hidden life to visibility. See some amazing fungi found in our farm and around house.

Near our home

White fungi on dead coconut tree in the farm

Red fungi on dead coconut tree in the farm

Monsoon brings in its share of misery too. Here is one example of it - a tree fell on a 11,000 V electricity line bringing down the poles and wires to the ground. Luckily nobody was hurt. Electric equipment in the nearby homes were burnt to charcoal when the 11,000 V line touched 230 V domestic supply lines. Building behind the fallen tree is a school. Kids were inside the school when the incident took place. You can imagine what kind of disaster it would have been if this happened when the kids were walking out of school.

Tree fallen on electric line