By the way, the barbs about the meterological department reminded me of something Pu La Deshpande wrote. It was a parody of the "letters to editor" that appear in 'Sakal', which is Pune's oldest and stuffiest Marathi daily, which assumes itself to have some great social standing and prestige in the mind of the normal Punekar. I translate it in english for the benefit of my diverse reader base (there might be some errors as I am reproducing this from memory).
"
Sir,
The monsoons have been late in arriving this year. The crops are in a dire condition and we may be looking at a drought. The weather is getting worse by the day, and yet there is no sign of clouds in the skies at all. I would like to ask the officials of the Meteorological Department who are getting fatter by the day with their fat paychecks, what do they propose to do about this? What if the monsoon fails? Should they not be taking any steps to ensure the speedy arrival of the monsoons?
"
"
Sir,
The monsoons have been late in arriving this year. The crops are in a dire condition and we may be looking at a drought. The weather is getting worse by the day, and yet there is no sign of clouds in the skies at all. I would like to ask the officials of the Meteorological Department who are getting fatter by the day with their fat paychecks, what do they propose to do about this? What if the monsoon fails? Should they not be taking any steps to ensure the speedy arrival of the monsoons?
"
