As the city relished the first showers...

After a few months of sweltering heat, Kolkata was left yearning for the monsoons. The rains however, played the elusive mistress, this year around. The first few weeks of June saw brief, drizzly showers interspersed with windy evenings and sunny mornings. The South West Monsoon winds were largely responsible for these early showers and even before the monsoon came down on Kolkata full force the city was already experiencing sharp drops in temperature. With the onset of June, came the first set of the famous Kalboishakhis. The gusty storm winds and the overclad skies people expected heavy rainfall. The rejuvenating rains came much later, towards the end of the month, with continuous rainfall for a day and a half. As is with the first showers, no-one complained of the inconvenience. Everywhere there were children were playing in the rain, cars splashing water, couples walking hand in hand, rejoicing the first showers. G.K. Das, a senior Meteorologist at the Regional Meteorological Centre, claimed that the monsoons are expected to be normal. A depression over the Bay of Bengal kept most parts of the city wet, and after playing hide and seek for a while, the rains finally indulged the parched streets of Kolkata, much to the glee of rain-fed Kolkata.