Summer in Bengal

             Summer is a very prominent season in West Bengal. Baisakh and Jaistha of the Bengali calendar, approximately from mid- April or mid- June of English almanac, are the two summer-months here. Summer brings gradually increasing heat after the temperature climate of the spring and bathes in perspiration before the rainy season sets in.

             Summer is compared by many poets to an ascetic silently engaged in deep meditation sitting at the center of a circle of fire. It is shorn of all luxuries and excesses, Actually, Summer months constitute the lean time on the year. Our mother Earth comes nearest to the Sun in these two months. Summer gives us the longest day and the shortest night of the year. The hottest sun at its zenith drives away man and cattle equally from the open to take shelter in the shade.

             The water of the rivers and ponds is evaporated by the blazing heat of the sun. The sources of natural water dry up and the people in the areas where tap-water and tube-wells are not many suffer a lot from the lack of drinking water. Summer diseases spread like wild fire taking the toll of lives. Whirl wind goes on arising dust and flight, over the bosom of the bare fields and grey woods.

             Dearth of food and vegetables rules the market hut some juicy fruits and few fragrant flowers are the only boons these terrible months terrible bring for us.