Climate Concert

By Elaine Elizabeth Jinto, age 14, Bengaluru, India.

we had had a scorching summer
and every AC in the house-
hold was on all the time
but it wasn’t hard for us
like it was for the farmers
who longed for rain, for crops
that he had sowed in summer.
at last it was, finally, June
and we gathered on the balcony
hoping to see nature’s finest performance
raindrop musicians, thunder-clapping audience
spotlighted by lightning, the aroma rising
from the loamy soil of Earth.

My little brother was most eager
to see rain falling, to do
what the rest of us have done
to race through the puddles, to
make paper boats and sail them
to run barefoot in the water, that
icy tingle shocking his little legs
to taste those cool, clean drops
and to drink steaming hot chai*
and to eat bhajia** at the end
but it did not rain, like
it was supposed to, and he
grew despondent, sad, waiting for rain
each day, his eyes searching for
those welcome clouds, to bring rain
to this parched, peppery, dry earth.

And finally, it did, though not
at the time dictated by nature
and we did not let him go out
he asked us why, and we
told him about climate change and
fossil fuel, pollution and everything else
that was happening these days to
Nature, and he grew angry, and
blamed the older generation, for
being greedy, plundering loot from nature
leave behind nothing for his generation
and asked us what stories he
would tell his grandchildren. Of technology?

*Chai is Indian spiced tea, made especially by boiling the tea leaves with milk, sugar, and cardamom, etc.
**bhajia is a type of fritter originating in the Indian subcontinent. It is made from spicy hot vegetables, commonly onion, and has several variants.
We often enjoy these during the monsoons.

By Elaine Elizabeth Jinto, age 14, grade 9, Bengaluru, India. She adds: “I am originally from the State of Kerala, but I was born and raised in Bengaluru, Karnataka. I can speak Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, and Kannada, along with English. I started writing in 3rd grade, beginning with a poem about a playground. I serve as the Editor-in-chief of our school magazine. I understand the impact writing has when it comes to spreading the right messages.
“I love writing and reading about everyday things that I can relate to. I generally do not follow a strict form in my poems, because I get more room for creativity… Through my poems and prose, I like to give voices to those silent and mundane events that play a huge role in our everyday lives.”