Monsoon comes to Thiruvananthapuram

There is a tradition that on this day each year the monsoon first arrives in India and is first experienced at the town of Thiruvananthapuram (formerly known as Trivandrum), capital of the Indian state of Kerala near the southernmost tip of the sub-continent.

The monsoons were so tiresome and troublesome to the English settlers in India, they coined a proverb: "Two monsoons are the age of man".

At Cherrapunji, the wettest place on earth, one year they had 26.2 metres (86 feet) of rain. Here, predicted behaviour of the coming monsoon is divined by holy men who smash an egg on a flat rock to read the auguries.

Thiruvananthapuram is an ancient city with trading traditions dating back to 1000 BCE, and was for centuries a trading post for spices.

"The name 'Thiruvananthapuram' means the abode of the sacred snake-god Ananthan, on whom Vishnu, the God of Preservation, is believed to be reclining. The old name Trivandrum is the anglicized form of the word, Thiruvananthapuram." Source: Kerala Government website


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