Raqs Media Collective

While sitting at my table, i saw the breeze blow strong and leaves fall. And i was struck by the fact that this falling was happening at the same time as i see plants on the balcony bursting with flowers and new leaves. So went checking online for what really constitutes the seasons here, at home.

Some filtered facts: There are 12 months in the basic hindu calendar
Month Name (Maas)        Month day (Gregorian)    Season (Ritu)
Chaitra                           March 22                     Vasanta
Vaisakha                         April 21                       Grishma
Jyeshta                          May 22                        Grishma
Aashaadha                      June 22                       Varshaa
Shraavana                       July 23                        Varshaa
Bhaadra                          August 23                    Sharat
Aashvina                       September 23                Sharat
Kaartika                        October 23                    Hemanta
Agrahayana                   November 22                 Hemanta
Pausha                         December 22                 Sisir
Maagha                         January 21                    Sisir
Phalguna                     February 20                    Vasanta

The association of seasons or ritus with months is based on religious calendars (including the Rashtriya Panchang, which has Vaisakha as the first month) – the six ritus of two months each constitutes the rituchakra (the cycle of the seasons): Grishma (summer), Varsha (rains), Sarat (autumn), Hemanta (late autumn), Sisir (dew/winter), Vasanta (spring).

I dont think this still answers how we have the simultaneous dying and coming alive of plants...

This is something that can be found on many places online, but nevertheless:

Susan Griffen tells a story about surrealist poet Robert Desnos, who was imprisoned in the Nazi death camps:

One day Desnos and others were taken away from their barracks. The prisoners rode on the back of a flatbed truck; they knew the truck was going to the gas chamber; no one spoke. Soon they arrived and the guards ordered them off the truck. When they began to move toward the gas chamber, suddenly a Desnos jumped out of line and grabbed the hand of the woman in front of him. He was animated and he began to read her palm. The forecast was good: a long life, many grandchildren, abundant joy. A person nearby offered his palm to Desnos. Here, too, Desnos foresaw a long life filled with happiness and success. The other prisoners came to life, eagerly thrusting their palms toward Desnos and, in each case, he foresaw long and joyous lives.

The guards became visibly disoriented. Minutes before they were on a routine mission the outcome of which seemed inevitable, but now they became tentative in their movements. Desnos was so effective in creating a new reality that the guards were unable to go through with the executions. They ordered the prisoners back onto the truck and took them back to the barracks. Desnos never was executed. Through the power of imagination, he saved his own life and the lives of others.

Have you heard of Michael Moorcock? He imagined a character called Jerry Cornelius in the late 60s - a kind of maverick assassin responding (in sometimes surrealistic, sometimes almost analytical fiction) to the political and imaginative crises of the times. Interestingly this character became someone that lots of other writers took on (basically in the New worlds magazine) and he became for each author something the same yet something new. sometimes white, sometimes black, sometimes straight, sometimes gay, sometimes fat, sometimes thin. etc etc. (but always the fascination for cars :-)) These stories seem to have been written way beyond the 60s (dont know till when, maybe till fairly recently) and i am reading a compendium of some of them. Many of them are almost incomprehensible since they write in such a personal language (very very trippy!) but still quite fascinating to see the kind of dark and morbid fantasies of society that reflect quite directly on politics (unlike most speculative or science fiction that often relocates to new worlds or new time).