India's Monsoon: A Time of Washouts and Waiting ; People in Nepal Are Sacrificing Goats to Stop the Floods, While in Delhi They Are Waiting for Rain in Their Skivvies

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It is the season of sour milk. India's hot season - eight months of sweat and fecundity that includes every month that doesn't have an "r" and even a few months that do - has always been the enemy of a cold glass of milk. Constant power cuts, some of them lasting up to eight hours, mean that even the most modern refrigerators let food spoil. Those Indians who take milk in their tea, which is to say everybody, often open the fridge to find yogurt instead.

The one respite from all this heat is the monsoon, a June-to- September rainy season that drenches the countryside, replenishes the rivers, and has given centuries-worth of poets all their best lines and …