Define coincidence. On Thursday, 11th October at 6 AM IST (Indian Standard Time) Cyclone Titli was battering my home in India with heavy rains. At exactly the same time, my home in the other side of the world in US was getting pounded by incessant rains from Hurricane Michael. All schools are declared closed in both places for 11th October.
In US the hurricanes are named starting with A (for example Andrew), B (like Brad) and continues upto Z (Zack), though I don't remember any going that far. If a particular hurricane is devastating its name is never reused. For example - Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and Katrina in 2005 were catastrophic enough for their names not to be used again. I have no idea what's behind the nomenclature like Phailin, Baaz, Titli etc are given for the Cyclones on the other side of the world.
This Cyclone is named TITLI - means "Butterfly". It came floating like a butterfly over the Bay of Bengal only to sting like a bee. The splattering of wind driven rain on the wooden window all night reminded me of this lovely Odia song by Chitta Jena -
SARA RAATI BARASARE
BHIJI BHIJI MU GO,
KHOJUTHILI JAHA KETE DINA.
All night drenched in rain,
I was searching for many days in vain.
By mid morning there was water, water everywhere. I live in old Bhubaneswar, not so modern and well planned as the other side of the city. You would expect the old city to be water clogged and its so called modern, well planned counterpart free from any water logging. But it is other way round. A poor drainage system coupled with public unawareness, there was reports of many areas submerged under stagnant water.
Our locality in the old town hardly gets impacted by standing water, its centuries old archaic drainage system built by the Saivaite Kings apparently works fine. The Gajapati Kings built this piece of Engineering using his own money and any inefficiency and corruption by his builders would have been rewarded with MUNDA KAT DANDA (Head chopping punishment) - Not to mention there was no BDA then to sanction houses to be built on natural water disposal routes.
The weather started getting better after 6 O'Clock in the morning as the rain stopped and wind started winding up. I accompanied my friend Shubhranshu Babu for a walk inside the Forest Park. The floor was filled with broken twigs and leaves from the storm. There were patches of greenish yellow flowers sprinkled on the walking trail.
Even on a working day on a rainy morning the Park was crowded with walkers and a few joggers trying to outrun each other. The walking crowd consisted of mostly 4 feeters fitting perfectly to the local profile of highly disproportionate figures - slim hands and legs with protruding bellies, a few frantically scanning their smartphones while huffing and puffing ahead, taking a break to text before resuming their walk.
Completing 5 rounds in the park helped me ameliorate the guilty pleasure of my gluttony. Forest park is a commendable place surrounded by tons of greenery supplying fresh oxygen. But if you are looking for more elbow space and privacy, it may not be the perfect place for you. More later....
In US the hurricanes are named starting with A (for example Andrew), B (like Brad) and continues upto Z (Zack), though I don't remember any going that far. If a particular hurricane is devastating its name is never reused. For example - Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and Katrina in 2005 were catastrophic enough for their names not to be used again. I have no idea what's behind the nomenclature like Phailin, Baaz, Titli etc are given for the Cyclones on the other side of the world.
This Cyclone is named TITLI - means "Butterfly". It came floating like a butterfly over the Bay of Bengal only to sting like a bee. The splattering of wind driven rain on the wooden window all night reminded me of this lovely Odia song by Chitta Jena -
SARA RAATI BARASARE
BHIJI BHIJI MU GO,
KHOJUTHILI JAHA KETE DINA.
All night drenched in rain,
I was searching for many days in vain.
By mid morning there was water, water everywhere. I live in old Bhubaneswar, not so modern and well planned as the other side of the city. You would expect the old city to be water clogged and its so called modern, well planned counterpart free from any water logging. But it is other way round. A poor drainage system coupled with public unawareness, there was reports of many areas submerged under stagnant water.
Our locality in the old town hardly gets impacted by standing water, its centuries old archaic drainage system built by the Saivaite Kings apparently works fine. The Gajapati Kings built this piece of Engineering using his own money and any inefficiency and corruption by his builders would have been rewarded with MUNDA KAT DANDA (Head chopping punishment) - Not to mention there was no BDA then to sanction houses to be built on natural water disposal routes.
The weather started getting better after 6 O'Clock in the morning as the rain stopped and wind started winding up. I accompanied my friend Shubhranshu Babu for a walk inside the Forest Park. The floor was filled with broken twigs and leaves from the storm. There were patches of greenish yellow flowers sprinkled on the walking trail.
Even on a working day on a rainy morning the Park was crowded with walkers and a few joggers trying to outrun each other. The walking crowd consisted of mostly 4 feeters fitting perfectly to the local profile of highly disproportionate figures - slim hands and legs with protruding bellies, a few frantically scanning their smartphones while huffing and puffing ahead, taking a break to text before resuming their walk.
Completing 5 rounds in the park helped me ameliorate the guilty pleasure of my gluttony. Forest park is a commendable place surrounded by tons of greenery supplying fresh oxygen. But if you are looking for more elbow space and privacy, it may not be the perfect place for you. More later....
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