For India and South Asia, the monsoon is a very different than the four seasons of the West: it is the main anticipated weather phenomenon affecting all aspects of life from June through September each year. Monsoon is the economic, social, and cultural lifeblood of the region. As the late Indian Punjabi writer, Khushwant Singh, wrote: What the four seasons of the year mean to the European, the one season of the monsoon means to the Indian. It is preceded by desolation; it brings with it hopes of spring; it has the
fullness of summer and the fulfillment of autumn all in one.

The Himalayan monsoon fills our days with thunderous rain pounding the tin roof and our stream fills with fast flowing brown or gray muddy waters. The mystery of the monsoon mists pulls me skyward along with the magnificent cumulus, altocumulus, cirrus, and cirrostratus clouds. It is a great gift to watch the water saturated land release moisture back into the atmosphere. Monsoon Himalaya momentarily capture these evanescent, liquid forms as they continuously reenact the Earth’s great water cycle.