This year the monsoon has been particularly harsh. It is usually on its last legs by the first week of September. The month of Bhadon (19 Aug-17 Sep) sees the monsoon receding and losing strength. By mid-Sep it is almost gone.
However, this year the second week of Sep saw very heavy and unusual rain. For days on end, it rained. It rained at night and at noon. Even the seasoned locals of Mussoorie looked up to the sky and wondered what the gods were up to.
The rains in Mussoorie bring mixed emotions. With the advent of the monsoon the locals celebrate the end of the scorching summer heat. Their tolerance of summer heat is very limited, unlike the people in the plains. It is also a time to sow vegetables like cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, beans, pudina, dhania and other staples. The rains reinvigorate the streams and the nallas and spread a green carpet over the mountainsides and hills. Over the next two months the hills display every shade of green you can imagine. Plants take root in the most awkward of places and in general there is a surfeit of vegetation.
View of Doon Valley from Jharipani Road, Mussoorie, after a monsoon shower
The rains also cool and extinguish forest fires that have become a nuisance in the hills these past few years. On an average every year forest fires eat up approx. 2000 hectares of forests in Uttarakhand. The fires pollute the air and make hillsides barren. The rains put out the fires and prepare the ground for new germination.
But the rains mean different things to different people. An entrepreneur rues the rains as that means the end of the summer business. Summer is the time for brisk business. It is a time to collect and store your nuts before winter sets in. Business in Mussoorie is seasonal and if you don’t build up a layer of fat in the summer months, you will not be able to make it through winter, when business is on a low ebb and tourists in hibernation.
Summer is a time of honking cars, traffic jams, water shortages, sub-standard food, sloppy service and overcrowding on the Mall. But that is the definition of every hill-station in the summer, not just Mussoorie. But the problem is aggravated in Mussoorie. It is not very far from Delhi-NCR, and with good roads and better cars it is a short jaunt to the cool Mussoorie hills. People pick up their fancy motors and land in Mussoorie in a few short hours at the drop of a hat. The hills cool their summer-heated heads, and they enjoy a few days of cool winds, ice-cream, a horse-ride or a drive to a waterfall. Every hill-station worth its salt offers this experience, and more.
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