I thought the south of France was hot...

... but I was wrong.

Hot season in Nasik: one of my most hardcore experience over here until now. From the 1st of May until the first rains, in the first week of June, I realized what is real heat. Constant heat. And constant movements from AC rooms (18 degrees) to outside (35-40degrees). I couldn't do anything. I was so tired all the time, it was incredible. You go out and you are literally surrounded by a hot blanket. Your body gets overwhelmed within a second. And you hear Indians telling you: well yes, this is hot, but go to Napgpur (500km east of Nashik, in the middle of the country) and you will get to know hw 47 degrees feel. No thank you! That was enough for me.

Everything around is very dry. The countryside is brownish-orange. Fields look desperate. And you feel like you are 20 years older than you are at every movement you do!

And then comes the first rain. It met us while we were having a party outside, for Alex's birthday. We could hear thunder and storm far away from us and didn't think it would be with us so fast. And within a second it was raining cats and dogs! We had to leave the place very quickly but went all wet anyway. The rain had the smell of summer rains in Europe. And it cooled down the temperature immediately, bringing them down to an "acceptable" level.
So we thought: wow, this is the monsoon. BUT: no, that was not the monsoon. From that day it rained a couple of days long at the same time for the same time, but it stopped again. The weather became warm again, but not as hot as before. The monsoon was late this year. From what I could see and what I can understand (which is not always obvious here), I think the monsoon is starting now. One week ago we had violent rains at night, and now there are days when it rains for several hours.


And with the monsoon comes a litteral "metamorphosis" of the landscape. The surroundings of Nashik look very different now. No more Brown, no more orange, no more dry fields, no more killing sun. Now the sky is either grey or deep blue with deep big clouds. It is funny to realize how happy you are to see a cloud when you haven't seen one in months. The nearer the rain, the darker and the lower the clouds. This is the background. And down on the ground, green green green. Fields, trees, grass, mountains, everything is deep green. So far it has rained in a shy way I think. The Indians are used to much more than that. They say in the middle of the Monsoon the fields are submerged with water. The streets are flooded, if you want to step out of your car you fill it up with water. We'll see.
´

Even if Indian do not want to experience the same Monsoon as last year (some of you might have seen pictures of Bombay floded), they all pray for at least a "regular" Monsoon, necessary to a healthy and prosperous year to come (on an economical and social point of view). No rains would be a catastrophe!

More pictures? Try fotos.web.de/cam_in_india/Dry_summer_-_to_Trimbakeshwar and fotos.web.de/cam_in_india/Dry_summer_-_Bicycle_ride