The monsoon has arrived

I guess the monsoon is as unlikely a topic as anything else to write your first post on. However, being interested with climatic phenomena, I was quite intrigued that the monsoon has "arrived" in thiruvananthapuram, a week ahead of schedule!
In a country where punctuality is found only on resumes, barracks and school handbooks, a weather system originating in the other half of the globe, and influenced by atleast half-a-dozen capricious phenomena, is expected to maintain a rather rigorous schedule - I've had quite a few bombay-ites proudly proclaim to me that every 10th of June, the clouds would gather on the horizon, a cool wind would drive out the heat, and then it would rain - pour until "ganpati bappa moriya" time in September!
Growing up in Chennai, I was more used to the question "whether it would rain?" than "when?" and watching the Total Rainfall column in The Hindu paper, rise steadily for Bombay, Mangalore, Kottayam, Kochi and other west-coast cities through June-July-august, irked me endlessly! "What we lose out on the south-west monsoon, we more than make up in the north-east monsoon. Plus we have the cyclones..", was my unwavering response to friends asking me about Chennai's water woes! But deep within, I always knew we were wronged - deeply wronged by the south-west monsoon that decided chennai would not be a stop on its annual sojourn from kerala to kashmir! Ofcourse, the cyclones orchestrate magnificent light and sound shows, quite unmatched elsewhere in the country - but that is the Chennai-ite in me, trying yet again to score a point!
Cyclone time is November - if this blog(ger) is still around, cyclones will find their place on these pages.