Preparing for the monsoons, by Shamsher
Nangla's morning began at 10:30 AM today. Everyone may have woken up at day break, but the early morning downpour kept everyone indoors. The day was thrown back by an hour by the rains. The day's chores began a few hours late, and will have ended later than they usually do. There are additional tasks to be done as well – like sealing the cracks on roofs. Materials accumulating for months on the roofs of homes have to be cleared and a new place found for them. Garbage has to be discarded. Disarranged tarpaulin sheets have to be placed again carefully on the iron rods that make the framework of the roof, and rejoined at the edges.
I'm on a roof now, like most of Nangla is. Each roof has a gentle gradient. First a skeleton of iron rods is laid. Then several pieces of tarpaulin are placed, carefully, with their edges overlapping like the scales of a fish. And finally an ample sheet, that can cover the entire roof, is spread over all of these. Each roof is layered in this way, so water can flow down, not halt and leak through.
The first rain has triggered the repairing of roofs, and it seems each home in Nangla is preparing for the monsoons. The contours of everyone's bodies are visible from under their wet clothes, as they bend and work. The clouds, still gathered in the sky, seem ready to pour down again.
The first rain has triggered the repairing of roofs, and it seems each home in Nangla is preparing for the monsoons. The contours of everyone's bodies are visible from under their wet clothes, as they bend and work. The clouds, still gathered in the sky, seem ready to pour down again.
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