SUMMER IN WEST BENGAL
Mutability is the law of life. As in human life, so in nature nothing is fixed everything goes on changing from time to time. In keeping with this law of change the seasons in Bengal come in and go out in a cyclic order.
The Bengali year is divided into six seasons of two months each. They are summer, the rains, autumn, the late autumn, called Hemanta, winter and spring. They appear and disappear one after another. With their appearance and disappearance we see remarkable changes in natural surroundings.
Summer is the first season. It sets in with the beginning of the Bengali year and covers roughly the months of April and May. It is the most unwelcome season. The day is very long and everything looks lifeless and fatigued. The sun shines very hotly and people suffer from unbearable heat. It sometimes seems to spit fire upon the earth. Trees and plants wither. The ground gets very dry and soon becomes full of cracks. Ponds and rivers dry up. The people in villages suffer from the scarcity of drinking water. They are compelled to drink muddy water and are often attacked with such water-borne diseases as cholera, typhoid and dysentery.
In summer people generally keep indoors at noon and go out in the morning and afternoon. At night people cannot sleep-they go on rolling on the beds and sweat from heat. In this season violent storms known as kalbaisakhi (norwester) occasionally break out and cause the farmers much loss and suffering. Summer has its relieving feature. It is the season of palatable fruits. Mangoes, lichis, jackfruits are available only in this season.
