When "clouds burst" at the "abode of clouds"...

Ahead of the Durga Puja, the Goddess was 'helping' sell everything from luxury lats to trendy accessories, even shampoo. (Do businesses employ symbols of other faiths too, during festival seasons as marketing agents and salespeople... Do they dare?) 

Ahead of Durga Puja, also, the Goddess bestowed one form of bounty - copious torrents of the life-giving liquid - water. This time through a cloudburst in India NE. City floods are quite common now, we know, thanks to rampant urbanization and poor solid waste management. Clueless administration demands Central aid, money changes hands from and to clueless Govts, grandiose plans and disaster relief measures get announced (with the media coverage directly proportional to the product of the estimated losses and the promised relief bounty).

Floods in rural areas are as devastating too. When vast open fields end up inundated, there are short and long term losses too. 

Here is a good account of one of the series of 'blessings' - "Palanquin belief & grisly reality - Almanac says Durga’s arrival on a palki spells doom; professor lists reasons for calamity" (Pictures taken at a place called Sonapur under "Dimoria development block of Guwahati sub-division, an area of Kamrup (Metro) district with hill and plain. It is extended between latitude 26°10' N and longitude 91° 45'E and its approximate altitude is 55m above MSL The temperature ranges from 6°-38°C, average rainfall is 1,600 mm per yr and the relative humidity is 76.6%. A tributary Digaru is flowing through the heart of town. The geographical area of Dimoria development block is 261.64 km2 of which, an area of 16.58 km2 is under forest. As per 2001 census, total population is 1,19,584".
"बाढ़ में जा !" is a common "Get lost!" expression.  Viewing and hearing reports of J&K floods, and seeing and experiencing Assam floods will prevent people from using this expression even against enemies, let alone fellow living,  loving beings.
So the India NE floods didn’t make much of a news item for mainstream media. Trending these days were foolishness at Delhi zoo, bitter and petty seat-sharing brawls in Maharashtra , and of course the brainless antics of a publicity-mad newspaper and one of its page 3, equally brainless bestsellers... 
Happy that Mangalyaan carried on, relentless in its onward journey.... the only true representation of undaunted optimism. 
So the least you can do is wish people "बाढ़ में  भी जियो !"
    

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