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.
