Meteorologists are ‘Always Wrong,’ Right? Then Why Give Holidays for Institutions

Meteorologists are ‘Always Wrong,’ Right? Then Why Give Holidays for Institutions

Meteorologists are ‘Always Wrong,’ Right? Then Why Give Holidays for Institutions? The District administration instead of declaring holidays for school children should straighten up their poor planning, rectify bad storm water drainage and roads without drainage, many other poor infrastructure planning-which has led to water flowing and flooding of streets recently. Simply giving holidays to school children in order to avoid blame for flooding due to poor planning of MCC and PWD will not serve the purpose. Every now and then if children are given holidays due to bad weather, just image how many times more will they get day off from school, when monsoons have still time to end? Not “Smart” decision being a “Smart City”?

Mangaluru: This is the SECOND time in the last few weeks that Deputy Commissioner of DK Sasikath Senthil has declared holidays for schools/institutions in DK in the pretext of Bad Weather as predicted by Meteorologists in Bengaluru- and both the times it was a FLOP, including today. Recalling DC’s order on July 8, 2018, he ordered schools/Colleges close in the wake of bad weather, but it turned out to be a bright sunny day that day. Similarly, a month later, on 11 August once again DC ordered for schools/colleges in DK to remain closed believing weatherman’s report- and it once again turned out to be a bright sunny day. So why even call for holidays 24 hours in advance, when you are not sure it would be a bad weather, from past experiences.

Wow! Look at the Bright Sunny Saturday Outside

No one is perfect, but no profession gets a rap for being consistently wrong like weathermen. If they don’t predict the weather perfectly when your plans rely on it, things tend to get a bit hairy. Many a time meteorologists say there would be sunny skies while there’s a storm raging overhead. or sometimes just the opposite-like they will say there would heavy thunderstorms, and it will turn out to be a pleasantly warm day. Accurate weather forecasting depends on how many eyes there are in the sky. So often the story is the same: Meteorologist predicts heavy rain resulting in flooding. Citizens plan for the rainy day and cancel programmes/picnics. A last-minute change to storm track means only it drizzles, not even to wet the soil. Public bitterly complains. And such issues still carry on- and when we know it why even bother to depend on a weatherman. No one is powerful than God or Mother nature- they have their own way to put the spell whenever they want to.

And regarding the children going to school these days-how many of them go walking to school, probably only a percentage. Either they get dropped to school by their parents in vehicles or van/auto-rickshaw drivers drop them or many take the school bus- and when that’s the case why even do they need a holiday even if it rains. Only a few children have to bear the brunt of the rain, who walk a little distance. Recalling our school days, we all went to school in heavy rains, and we never got holidays. We loved to walk in the rain going to school. Seems like the present children are spoiled brats?

Guess what? The reason to give holidays anticipating bad weather is that the administration doesn’t want to get accountable if a child gets stuck in the floods or gets drowned in the flooded drain. Whose fault is this? It’s the fault of our lovely smart engineers/contractors of our so-called “Smart City” who lacked in proper planning of the city’s infrastructure, also due to the shabby drainage work which results in water overflowing and flooding and many other issues. Even after Mangaluru City was soaked and swallowed under floods due to these issues during the last heavy spell of rainfall we had, still no action has been taken to rectify these problems. And just to wash their hands off, children are given holidays to be on the safer side.

Mangaluru had heavy rains when we also went to school or college, but it wasn’t flooded like we see now. Blame it on multi-storied buildings that have sprung up, poor design of roads with no provision for water drain, clogged drainage, etc are the reasons for present such chaos. When holidays are declared for schools suddenly just because of heavy rain forecast, it also messes up the school plans-like today, Mount Carmel Central school-Mary Hill-Mangaluru had an inauguration of Atal Tinkering Lab-but the Principal did the right job in calling the senior students, and they were all happy to be at School for the event rather than be at home. And luckily God heard the religious Sisters prayers, which turned out to be a pleasant bright sunny day.

A senior lady who had accompanied her granddaughter to this programme at Mount Carmel Central School speaking to Team Mangalorean said, ” This is foolishness to declare holidays to institutions often during monsoons. Monsoons means we have to expect less rains and sometimes heavy rains, and we should be ready for it. I have gone to school the hard way walking miles in rain and shine. I have also learned the hard way. These days children want everything easy-learning easy browsing through Internet or smartphones, and also need to be dropped to school in a vehicle, even though they live a few meters away from their school. Oh well, times have changed, I am not sure, whether for good or bad, but the present generation should learn and achieve success in academics the hard way like we all did decades ago”.

In conclusion, having flopped twice in declaring holidays depending on the word of the weatherman/ Meteorologists 24 hours in advance, next time if the district administration is concerned about the safety of the school children, they could wait until a few hours prior to the school opening, and depending on how the weather looks outside, it could call for school/college closure. With all the latest technology we have, the message could be reached to be parents either through SMS/Whatsapp or any other quick way one could think off. And by the way, one Xth student said, next time DC orders holiday for rains, it means it will be a sunny day- and we have all our plans to go for a movie or stroll in the city malls?. Have a NICE and PLEASANT SUNNY SATURDAY??