My Experience of a Hailstorm

          I’m sure that you know about hailstorms. In a hailstorm, small pieces or chunks of ice fall from the sky. And I guess hailstorms are not common in Central and South India. On the 13th of March 2014, in Pune, where I live, I was doing my work. Around 3 pm, I noticed that the curtains started to rise up as the balcony’s window was open. I could hear the rustling of leaves and plants caused by the wind. I thought that it was just a strong breeze. But this rustling became noise and this noise got louder and louder. I left my work to see what was going on. The moment I pulled the curtain to the side, a large amount of dust entered my eyes. I quickly realised that it wasn’t just a breeze, it was a strong, ferocious, powerful wind. I immediately closed the window and started closing all the windows of my house. With the dusty wind, rain started, making it a mixture of muddy rain. I ran to the second balcony to close it. I closed it and saw nature’s fury. I saw something that looked like a water tornado with leaves, twigs, dirt, branches, clothes and what not. Speaking of clothes, I noticed the clothes which were hanging in the balcony to dry, were completely soaked in the muddy rainwater. I did not have the courage to gather the clothes as I feared that I would be blown away by the wind. Now really heavy rain started to pour down as in a cloudburst, in a horizontal direction. Then I heard people screaming. I heard a sound like dropping of marbles on the ground. Small balls of ice started pelting everywhere. These were hailstones. They also started moving in a horizontal direction. They started banging and crashing against the balcony window. It is a pity that you weren’t there to see that truly fantastic sight. Hailstones, leaves, clothes falling from the sky, the sound of thunder, the ultra-powerful tornado with water and air, with some plastic bags moving in a circular motion at high speed. The wind had become so powerful that the raindrops had started flying or falling upwards. I decided to film this with my camera but nothing was filmed clearly. Still, I managed to capture some hailstones. Then the hailstones stopped falling and the wind started to slow down. Now it seemed like a normal thundershower. After some minutes, the wind and rain stopped and I went into the balcony to see the aftermath of the storm. All the hailstones had melted. The storm lasted for a few minutes but changed the look of the environment. I could see clothes and shoes on the ground. Two trees had fallen down. The tin roofs of some houses had fallen into our society. One even fell into the swimming pool. People started to come out to see. Birds started chirping and flying. The environment had become fresh and clean. The wind had blown all the dust and dirt away. The trees became green and clean. This was the first time I had seen such a violent thunderstorm along with hailstones and I’m sure I won’t forget this incident ever in my life.

-         Manas Trivedi