Challenge #1
Directions: Use the map to answer the questions below
1. From what direction do the monsoons come?
2. The color of the monsoon arrow gets lighter as the monsoon heads north. What do you think this indicates?
1
DIRECTIONS: For each source, make an inference about how rainfall and the monsoons (seasonal winds)
have affected Indian history, civilization, and culture
Traditional Poem: The sky has been torn open, The grindstone
and oven are ruined, Our portion of poverty has come. The river
became flooded, The crop is destroyed, The cattle died from
hunger.
My sister-in-law’s corn is submerged, My sister-in-law’s rice and
My father-in-law’s mustard are damaged. Millets, lentils and corn
are ruined. And how is your peace my husband? I do not have any
happiness.
Inferences:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
from “Chasing the Monsoon: A Modern Pilgrimage Through India,” by Alexander Frater
Hindus believe the purest way of invoking rain is by song. The ancient rain-making chants, sung by masters, could even
move the gods – especially Indra who, riding a white elephant with four tusks, is charged with dispensing or withholding
the rains.
I met with T.V.A. Seshan, a man who now acts as temple consultant to Hindu communities in North America and
Australia to ask him about the rain-making songs.
“You are interested in rain and you probably wish to know if a devout, temple-going congregation is more likely to
invoke heavy showers than a lazy, shiftless one. The answer is yes. Take Kerala, for example, where the people are
extremely devout and, as a consequence, very, very good at rain. They achieve it through patient chanting and the
lighting of cloud-seeding fires; you will see them in villages all over the place. At Kanniyakumari they can even do chants
that reverse floods! By contrast the citizens of Madras town, who are not so devout, haven’t seen a drop for five years.”
I asked him to describe his own experience.
He paused. “I sang Raining Nectar, a famous rain chant… I began beneath a perfectly clear blue sky. After a while clouds
appeared from nowhere and gathered above our heads. I was astonished, of course, but managed to sing on. Then,
moments later, it happened.”
“You made rain?”
“I made a full-blooded thunderstorm… I must admit I walked around for the next few days feeling very proud of
myself…”
Inferences:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
****Your challenge is to create a rain chant. We will share these at the end of class and the funniest, most
creative will win.
2
Challenge #2
As the summer heats up and it seems to get
hotter and hotter every day we all wait eagerly for
the monsoons, scanning the newspapers to see if
the monsoons will arrive on time. They have just hit
southwest India and are now slowly moving
northwards. Once the rains come to Mumbai the
newspapers carry information on how much rain has
fallen and if the water reservoirs that store water for
the city are close to becoming full. Scientists attempt to predict what the monsoon will
be like and what effect it will have on the country. The monsoon rains are very
important to both farmers (for their crops) and to city people for drinking water.
In countries like India, which has a monsoon, these cycles are deeply important in
our culture and economy (economy is the word that describes the way people make and
spend money). In fact, the economy can be said to rely on the monsoon because our
farmers and their crops depend on the monsoon and India is a country whose economy
depends on farms and crops. In fact, two-thirds of people in our country earn a living
from farming. 60% of the people who earn a living from farming need the monsoon
rains to grow their crops and so if there is no monsoon, many, many people will not be
able to grow crops and make money.
It’s mostly June and July that need good steady rains since that is the when most
farmers plant their crops. A late monsoon will affect the planting of crops, such as rice
and cotton. If it rains for a little while at the beginning of the monsoon then ends
quickly, most of these plants will die. However, if there are large gaps between heavy
rains then some plants weaken and drown or start rotting when it rains heavily again.
Another crop that illustrates the importance of the rains is sugarcane, the plant that
sugar comes from. In a year with bad monsoons, India can go from selling sugar to
other places to make money, to buying it from other countries and, as such, lose
money. For sugarcane, a late monsoon can be devastating even if the total quantity of
rain is enough.
A bad monsoon especially hurts those who live in the countryside. During a bad
monsoon, farmers know they will make less money, so they spend less money. They
buy fewer things and pay less money to the people who work their fields. As such,
when the farmers spend less money, other people get paid less money and, as such,
many, many people become poorer – all because of the monsoon! So a bad monsoon
can have a very large effect on the entire economy.
3
**** Your challenge at the end of this section is to complete the questions below. When you have answered
the questions, you need to create a picture and slogan that states whether your group thinks monsoons are
a friend or foe. Need to have a two sentence description at the bottom with text evidence to support you
side.
Comprehension Questions:
1. How can monsoons affect the sugarcane crop?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
2. How can monsoons affect more people than just the farmers of India?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Why are monsoons important to the people of India?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Inference Questions:
1. What would life be like for people in India if there was no monsoon at all?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
2. How would people’s lives change in India if there was a bad monsoon?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
3. The author said that the monsoon is very important to the culture of India, or the way people in India live
their lives every day. Why do you think the monsoons might be important to the culture of India?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Forrest Gump Video (In order to answer this question, click the link below) How do you think the kind of
rainfall Forrest describes would affect countries and people in the region?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
4
Challenge #3
Ancient India
1) What continent is India a part of?
____________
2) Which bodies of water surround India?
a)_____________________________
b)_____________________________
c)_____________________________
3) In ancient Egypt, what important place
did people settle near? Why did they settle
there?
_________________________________
__________________________________
________________________________
_________________________________
4) What were most of all the earliest
settlements in ancient India located near?
Why do you think people settled in these
areas?
__________________________________
________________________________
__________________________________
________________________________
5) What were the three rivers that people
settled near most?
a)________________b)_______________
___ c)__________________
6) Besides being a river and a source of freshwater, why else do you think people settled along the Saraswati
River in ancient times? (Hint: Pay attention to where the river is located, what it is located near and between,
and where the river flows).
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
7) Ancient India was surrounded on three sides by water, and to the north, there are the Himalayan Mountains
(the tallest and longest mountain chain in the world). What effects, positive and negative, do you think this had
on civilization in ancient India?
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
5
6
7
8
9
10
****Watch the second video on my website, your challenge for this section is to design a city layout like
Harappa/Mohenjo-daro, design a house that could be used in their city, and design a seal that can be used
to trade.
11