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Mawsynram: Deep in India's northeast, villagers use
grass to sound-proof their huts from deafening rain, clouds are a
familiar sight inside homes and a suitably rusted sign tells visitors
they are in the "wettest place on earth".
Oddly enough, lifelong residents of Mawsynram, a small cluster of
hamlets in Meghalaya state have little idea that their scenic home holds
a Guinness record for the highest average annual rainfall of 11,873
millimetres (467 inches).
"Really, this is the wettest place in the world? I didn't know that,"
Bini Kynter, a great-grandmother who estimates she must be "nearly 100
years old" tells AFP.
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"The rain used to frighten me when I was a young girl, it used to make
our lives hell. Today people have it easy," she says, wrapping a green
tartan shawl tightly around her shoulders.
Meteorologists say Mawsynram's location, close to Bangladesh and the Bay
of Bengal is the reason the tiny cluster receives so much rain.
"What happens is that whenever any moisture gathers over the Bay of
Bengal, it causes precipitation over Mawsynram, leading to a heavy, long
monsoon season," Sunit Das of the Indian Meteorological Department told
AFP.
While annual monsoon rains lashed the national capital last week,
causing traffic chaos and flooding at the international airport, such
problems are mild for Mawsynram.
Just thirty years ago, Mawsynram had no paved roads, no running water
and no electricity, making its six-month long monsoon an insufferable
experience for its mostly impoverished residents.
Landslides still occur regularly, blocking the only paved road
connecting the hillside hamlets. Rainwater still seeps into the mud huts
occupied by some villagers. And, while most homes now have electricity,
outages are commonplace. |
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Every winter the people of Mawsynram spend months preparing for the wet
season ahead, anticipating nonstop rain and no sunshine for several days
at a time.
They repair their battered roofs. They cut and hoard firewood -- a
source of light and fuel for cooking. They buy and store foodgrains,
since few will venture out to shop during the wettest months between May
and July.
The women make rain covers known as "knups," using bamboo slivers,
plastic sheets and broom grass to create a rain shield that resembles a
turtle shell, meant to be worn on one's head while being large enough to
keep rain off one's knees.
The labour-intensive process of weaving a knup - each one takes at least
an hour to complete - occupies the women of the village right through
the rainy season, when they are cooped up indoors for months at a time.
Bamboo and broom grass -- a delicate, fragrant, olive-coloured grass
used to make Indian brooms -- are among the chief plants grown in this
rocky, hilly region.
Broom grass is dipped in water, flattened using wooden blocks and
finally dried on rooftops across Mawsynram. According to Prelian Pdah, a
grandmother of nine, this makes the grass stronger and more likely to
survive a downpour. |
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Pdah, 70, spends part of the winter and all of the monsoon season making
bamboo baskets, brooms and knups which are bought by visiting
businessmen who sell them around the state.
"I don't like the heavy rainfall, it's boring to stay indoors all day.
It's annoying," she tells AFP.
Although few Mawsynram residents seemed to know or care about their
record-holder status, the right to the Guinness title has been hotly
disputed by a nearby town, Cherrapunji, which used to lay claim to that
honour.
In sleepy Mawsynram, many find the record-setting monsoon downright
depressing.
"There's no sun, so if you don't have electricity it's very dark
indoors, even during the day," Moonstar Marbaniang, the pyjama-clad
headman of Mawsynram says.
Those who have second homes elsewhere flee to escape the season. Others
catch up on their sleep, according to Marbaniang, whose first name
suggests one of the more striking legacies of colonial rule in India's
northeast.
Historians say the past presence of British soldiers and missionaries in
this region has seen many people name their children after random
English words or famous historical figures, often with no knowledge of
what they might mean. |
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State capital Shillong's former nickname as the "Scotland of the East"
also goes some way to explain the popularity of tartan scarves and
shawls, even in the most far-flung and underdeveloped villages of
Meghalaya.
Somewhat fittingly for a state whose name means "the abode of the
clouds" in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit, it is not unusual
for clouds to drift through people's homes in Mawsynram, leaving a wet
film on their furniture.
The grass-covered roofs are meant to muffle the relentless drumming of
the rain, but a heavy downpour will usually dislodge the grass to
deafening effect.
"We have to talk a little louder to be heard during the monsoon!"
67-year-old Marbaniang tells AFP, his mischievous eyes sparkling.
When the monsoon finally ends, there are no parties to mark its exit.
The rainy season simply gives way to the repair season, Marbaniang says.
"We don't hold any celebration or festival to mark the end of the rain.
We just start drying our clothes outside," he says, flashing a toothless
grin.
Despite enduring record amounts of rain, sanguine villagers say there is
no other place they would rather live.
Marbaniang, whose children all live in Shillong, says: "I'll never
leave, this is my home, I was born here, I will die here."
"Sure, it rains a lot, but we are used to it. We just wait it out."
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