What had been the situation like ?

What had been the situation like ?

The situation had been startlingly different then, I must say. Everything was different at that time. In every aspect. In village everything revolves around agriculture. So everything had been different then as had been the case with agriculture! Wht hd been ltogether different then ?

Let me start with the most important aspects of Paddy crop at that time ::

I can very distinctly remember that paddy transplantation at that time was very regular. The first heavy downpour started within a stipulated time of just fifteen days. That was fixed for every year ! The famous Bengali proverb uttered by my youngest grandfather was that,” Joishther saat aasaarer saat tobe jaanbo migher baat “. This was related with the starting time of monsoon every year that was well-known to all the framers of our area. Actually this was known to all the members of the farming community of the surrounding villages. The meaning of the proverb is that ” the first monsoon rainfall is known to begin from the last week of the Bengali month”Joisthya” to the first week of the Bengali month “aasar“” ! This time spanned just fifteen days !

I don’t know whether this is a Khona’s parable or not, but this had been widely known by all and sundry around the region and uttered frequently by my youngest grandfather then.

This saying is known by all even today out there in my native village , but happens, only very rarely and accidently !

My two elder brothers are still engaged out there in farming till today, but they lament that Rainy season do not start timely nowadays. Rather it is quite ‘normal’ these days to start paddy transplantation on the irrigation obtained from the underground water through Shallow Tube Wells (STW) run by electricity ! It has then become customary to start paddy transplantation at least one month ‘late’ from the “normal” time. What does it indicate, to be very specific? It does indicate very specifically that the season has changed!

Is it for the better or for the worse? Not obviously for the better. Because you see the ramifications the world over! Maybe you belong to another school who think Climate Change is yet to begin, even if “Season” has changed! I only mean the “Rainy Season” here which I have discussed in the last paragraph! Being optimistic is good , but being ‘unrealistically’ optimistic is not! It might well be a mental problem for you for which you should consult psychiatrist doctors or you have not the information with you or you’re shrugging off the real challenge of Climate Change that we are already facing in different forms. This had been the scenario till at least decade back, but I think most people are now convinced about it.

Just a short description of what is the situation like right now is given in the previous paragraph. I think there are very few people on earth now who can deny the fact that we’re certainly inside the vicious situation of climate change and environmental degradation!

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