On my way back home form the hospital yesterday, the paddy infields on both sides of the road were submerged with water. It was raining the whole day for the third successive day yesterday! The people who live on the low lying areas have been asked to move out of their houses for fear of flooding.
I stopped at this site as I noticed a boat and ducks having a gay time swimming in the water in the rain. It looked like a treat to them!
This stretch of the paddy fields get submerged like this around this time every year. There were few farmers on the road side who came to watch the devastation to their crops. I had a brief conversation with one of them, who said that it was in the last three ears they have such an unfortunate situation. He feared that the normal waterways have been blocked by construction of houses and land filling. The waterbodies have been reclaimed for industrial or housing complexes. It is a tale often heard as a reason for flooding.
As I drove back home in the heavy rain, I carried a heaviness of this loss that people feel!
People barely exist from hand to mouth in this economically distressing situation. On top of it there is another loss due to loss of their crops! Another reason for people to land in heavier debt.
The nature has its rhythm. We are called to live in tune with the laws of nature. We humans seem to break them and invite consequences on ourselves.
When I came back home, I got the news of a yielding nutmeg tree uprooted. This is the second one uprooted during this season. A reminder of soil erosion over the years!
season. 
We had about nutmeg trees seven years back and we are now left with about thirty. We planted another forty in the last seven years.
The earth is ours and we are called to sow and plant so that we make the earth a dwelling place for humans. This stewardship comes as a call at a difficult time, when we use the earth and leave it depleted!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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