Jaipur : the rainy season has arrived. Somewhere it is raining heavily, somewhere clouds are gathering, and somewhere people are waiting for the clouds. The world of news looks at rain from a different perspective. It has the weather department’s predictions, where it will rain, where there will be a storm, where strong winds will blow, where hail will fall. With the help of the weather department, many words automatically start appearing in the news – like thunder, hailstorm, lightning, normal rain, moderate rain, red alert, yellow alert etc., etc. Before the era of internet and satellite channels, when TV meant only Doordarshan, everyone had memorized one sentence of the weather news – “There will be heavy rain and thunder along with drizzle!” It seemed that rain is a different thing, and drizzle is different!
(Clouds in Jaipur)
In this season, another type of information comes from the Meteorological Department, that so many millimeters of rain has occurred. For example, on 28 June, news was published on the chaos caused by rain in the capital Delhi – 228.1 mm of rain fell in Delhi in 24 hours, whereas the average rainfall in June is 74.1 mm. It is also told whether the monsoon is late or early, it is arriving on this date, and where it has reached. And people keep guessing, that if it has arrived, then why is it not raining here. Remember, what happened to the cities of Dubai and United Arab Emirates (UAE) in April this year. And these were not ordinary and old cities, these were modern cities, where money rains, but the rain came, and went away drowning all their splendor.
Weather news and the concerns of the common man
However, whatever language the team of meteorologists and lexicographers speak, whatever words they use, the general public is only concerned about whether it will rain or not. After this, during the rainy season, news comes about who drowned, where houses and buildings collapsed due to rain, people died, where the roads of the cities got submerged in water, water entered the houses, where snakes started coming out in the rain, and where floods occurred. This is the story of every year. Every year similar news comes. One person faces a calamity, another makes news on it, the third one watches that news…and life goes on as usual.
Delhi floods
Flood like situation in Delhi
But the truth is that no matter how many predictions are made, how many preparations are made, disaster can strike at any time, anyone can be its victim. Remember, there was a time when news of floods used to come only from villages, and it was believed that floods are the scourge of villages only. But today cities are also not untouched. A few days ago, news of Delhi drowning in rain came. However, those who know Delhi know that there are some spots in the capital like Minto Road, ITO, Pragati Maidan, etc. where water accumulates every year during rain, and media cameras reach there, and the story of floods in Delhi is made.
Major cities hit by floods
But it is not that these stories are completely fabricated. It is a reality that today any city can turn into a river in no time. During the monsoon months, Mumbai in 2005, Surat in 2006, Jaipur in 2012, Chennai in 2015, Kerala in 2018, Patna in 2019, Delhi and Surat in 2023 – these cities faced severe floods. Apart from these, many cities in India face flood-like conditions every year during the rainy season. The same is happening even now. The disaster management department has been put on alert in 28 districts of Rajasthan. In many other states of the country too, from Arunachal Pradesh to Gujarat, from Himachal Pradesh to Tamil Nadu – somewhere there is a red alert, somewhere there is an orange alert.
But these floods in cities do not come only from rain, these are mostly floods created by humans. Cities have become concrete webs, there is a shortage of empty spaces, in such a situation, the rain water which used to get absorbed by the ground, and which used to be useful for humans by becoming underground water, that water now gets collected on the roads of the cities, gets wasted by the drains. If anything is left, then that too is made up by dirty and clogged drains. There is no way for the water to flow out, and the cities get submerged in a little rain.
Mumbai floods
But the way nature is changing its mind today, and due to which all predictions fail, it can only be said that every city, every person should be prepared. Disaster can strike at any time. You will remember what happened to the cities of Dubai and United Arab Emirates (UAE) in heavy rains in April this year. And these were not ordinary and old cities, these were modern cities, where money rains, but the rain came, and drowned all their splendor and went away. These days many parts of Germany are surrounded by floods after heavy rains. Floods have also caused havoc in Brazil. So it is the rainy season, and hence just be prepared. Yesterday it was the turn of some other city, today it may be the turn of our and your city too. And it is also possible that then we and you will not be reading the news, we and you will be the news.
