BY AUGUSTO RODRIGUES
The first rain always tends to get us out of our lethargy – catching some by surprise and showing the sense of preparedness of others and the same could be seen as pre- monsoon showers bathed pockets of North Goa on Saturday.
As many families prepared for another hot day – the Department of Education declared a holiday- the sun disappeared, and what started as a drizzle ended as a good spell of rain that caught people going to work unawares.
“I did not expect it to rain today and that is why I left home without a raincoat or even a jacket. Even then, it is nice that it has started raining as it was getting too hot,” retorted Elaine as she took shelter from the rain near a shop.
It rained continuously for around half an hour and the sudden rains saw a rise in demand for rainwear.
“This is Goa. My items were up for sale for the last many days and no one bothered. Now that it has rained, everyone is stopping by,” claimed Vinayak as he attends to customers enquiring about rainwear.
Bust stop shelters, abandoned houses, trees are normal places sought by most Goans to shelter from rains, to either put on raincoats and halt till the rain subsides.
“Since the monsoon broke in Kerala only day before yesterday, though it would take another few more days for it to reach Goa and hence am not fully prepared,” shot back Ivan as he rubbed his wet head.
“These are definitely pre-monsoon showers. We are working on trying to determine when monsoon will hit Goa,” stated the office of IMD in Goa.
With the pre-monsoon showers set in Goa, there is going to be a respite from the heat till our sojourn with the monsoon begins.
But just before going to the press, a message flashed on a news portal that said IMD has forecast the onset of monsoon over Goa in the next 48 hours.
The IMD said after its onset over Kerala, the southwest monsoon has further advanced into some more parts of central Arabian Sea and Karnataka.