Temps. are temporary

A few days ago a "cyclone" was reported to be coming toward the east coast of India and the reports were that we could get 2- 4 inches of rain or "up to 11 inches"... whatever that means. The result was that it was overcast and much cooler for the past few days! The low temps at night being around 70F and highs maybe 80- 82F which is a huge improvement over every day above 90F and humid without much cooling at night. We have A/C here, but with the frequent power cuts the units have periods of going on and off so frequently that they just managed to keep the place comfortable. Old time Bangaloreans say that it will stay cooler now. Monsoon "starts June 1" according to people here- without much hesitation over specifying the date. We will see.
The cyclone did not bring large amounts of rain to Bangalore, because it turned north. However, it brought a lot of rain to the areas closer to the coast. Of course, that means flooding and deaths too! Toll is 36 according to the newspaper, but our impression is that these numbers tend to be low estimates.
Meanwhile, Temperatures in New Delhi were expected to reach 120F yesterday- this not being too unusual there for this time of year! Certainly, we often see 110F reported often.... but "its dry there".
This morning a plane crash has been reported by CNN in "western India". Upon reading a bit, it is actually in "southern India"- Mangalore- which is less than half a day drive from Bangalore. It is on the west coast, to the CNN headline is correctly describing the location in that sense. The early reports suggest about 160 people killed.
Before coming to India Jim read a book written around one hundred years ago by someone who seemed to be an English Gentleman who lived in India for awhile. In one part of the book, the author talks about how an English farmer would describe a catastrophe as the year "when half his wheat crop was destroyed by a hail storm and a third of his corn while he lost 2 cows and 5 sheep to a drought" (These are not exact quotes- just similar examples based on memory of the meaning that writer tried to pass on). The Indian farmer would describe a catastrophe as the year "when he lost his entire crop, all of his animals, two sons, 2 daughters and 4 members of his extended family to the drought and subsequent starvation and disease". That perspective still seems valid to a large extent, though better today than back then.