The month of Ashar has come and gone. Did we get the rain we wanted in this first month of the monsoon? If we did, how much was it? Have we been able to escape the fear of heatwaves? It seems we have not. We had promised to help bring temperatures down by planting trees. So the question for ourselves is: how many saplings have we managed to plant at the start of the monsoon?

After Ashar comes Srabon. It is the fourth month of the Bengali year and the fifth month of the Indian national Saka calendar. The monsoon ends with the end of Srabon. The name Srabon comes from the position of the sun in the Srabona constellation. It is linked to one full cycle of the moon; the idea of the month arose from the phases of the moon, and such a month is called a lunar month.

According to the Hindu solar calendar used in India, Srabon has 31 days as a month of the Bengali calendar, and during it the sun is in the sign of Cancer. According to the Bengali calendar, the monsoon is the second season of the Bengali year, spanning the two months of Ashar and Srabon. The season before it is sun-baked summer and the one after it is green autumn.

In Bangladesh, during Ashar and Srabon, the monsoon, water lilies bloom in the beels. On land, flowers named kadam, kamini, keya, krishnachura, cajeput, gaganshirish, nageshwar, minjiri, segun (teak), sultan champa and swarnachampa bloom. Amid all the richness of the season, will the Srabon rains be able to drench us?

For even in the full monsoon, people in Bangladesh have to endure sultry heat. These days it does not pour even in the rainy season. Because of climate change, it is becoming hard to tell the monsoon and summer apart. The Meteorological Department's report forecast that instead of heavy rain this monsoon, heatwaves would increase in some parts of the country.

So, gasping in the heat, we no longer sing, "Ashar, Srabon, the heart will not listen; it rains and rains, and I have remembered you." Nor does the heart, aching with longing, hum late at night, "If you remember me on a Srabon night, the storm blows outside and tears fall from my eyes."

So our wish is that the Srabon rains will soak our environment and moisten our hearts, that the Srabon sky will turn cool in defiance of the glaring temperatures, that people's hearts will fill with love and everything around will turn green. Let Srabon come in all its glory. In the poet's words: "The Srabon rain falls without pause. Alone, I gaze into the empty void. On the shore of distant days, on the dark canvas of the mind, is the unwritten letter of the past written?"

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.