It was raining heavily as Chotu got off the bus and ran into Motu waiting under the shelter.

Motabhai, didn’t bring your umbrella huh?

Kya bolun Chotu, I trusted our Met department’s forecast which said “bright sunshine” and stepped out without an umbrella. Learnt my lesson not to trust the Met forecast ever.

Don’t be so harsh on them, Motu, forecasting something as fickle as the weather is not so easy. You seem to be hungry and angry. Here, get under my umbrella, let’s go drink some hot chaai .

Good idea, Chotu, let’s go to Sangeetha’s and get some masala vadai too... Maybe I’m harsh on the Met but look at them...they’re saying that July was not a good month and August is going to be worse.

Yes, that’s right, so what?

What “so what”? Didn’t you see the flooding in Kerala, Mumbai, Patna and Delhi, dams in Karnataka are overflowing... And now they’re saying that the rainfall was deficit by 6 per cent...How can you believe them?

Arrey , Motu, don’t snap at me yaar . You seem to be in your hungry young man avatar now.... Let’s order some chaai...

Masala vadai with tomato-red chilli chutney for me please...

Relax, you’ll get that too. I know your brain works best when you’re eating.

Cut the fun out, Chotu. I’m not amused. Now answer my question.

Motu, you and the Met department are both right.

How on earth is that possible?

Here, bite into your masala vadai . The Met department’s statement is based on a comparison between actual rainfall in July and the historical mean. The actual this year is lower than the historical mean by 6 per cent.

Achcha....

Haan , and rainfall is never uniform across the entire land mass, both in terms of spread and intensity. So, this year, parts of Gujarat, east UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and the entire North-East have seen poor rainfall even as Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and MP have seen heavy downpour.

You’re right, Chotu. Every year we hear about floods in Assam and the rhinos in Kaziranga being marooned but this year we didn’t hear any of that.

Your brain growth is years behind your age, Motu, can’t you think of something more serious?

Arrey , aren’t animals important? Ok, you tell me more serious stuff.

Do you know that our farm output could be affected this year?

You’re kidding...not after all those rains in Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Motu, farmers in these States must be happy but not the farmers in the deficient States such as Gujarat, Bihar and the North-East where rainfall has been deficient.

So you think there will be shortage of rice and dal? That’ll mean that my dosai and masala vadais will get expensive...

The biggest impact will be on groundnut, cotton, castor seed and millets which are grown in the affected regions, apart from paddy. But paddy is grown across the country, so the impact will not be felt much.

So edible oil prices will rise?

They might because sowing in July has been affected. We’ll have to watch how August pans out.

So, what you’re saying is that it is important where it rains and how much.

Exactly Motu. See, the masala vadai has done its job .