India is one of the most fortunate countries of the world where seasons change in a natural cycle. There are four major seasons viz., summer season, rainy season, autumn season and winter season. Every season brings its own pleasure and pain. We eagerly wait for the next season when the monotony of the season oppresses us. Winter season has its own charm but sometimes, it becomes very oppressive and brings a lot of suffering for the poor people who cannot afford to buy woollen clothes. Winter season usually lasts from November to January but December and January are very cold months.
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It was the month of January. It was biting cold. North India was in the grip of a terrible weather. The sky was overcast with dark clouds and sometimes it rained heavily Ram was followed by a hailstorm. The mercury registered a steep fall and the temperature touched the freezing point Everybody shivered with cold. The roads were deserted and people were wrapped in heavy woollen clothes. The poor tried to fight cold by burning fires here and there and clustering around them.
It was so intensely cold that some old poor people were frozen to death. Young boys and girls would not move out of their beds and sat wrapped in their warm quilts. The schools wore a deserted look. For the rich people it was a day of feasting. It was a day to eat, drink and make merry. They were sitting in snug, warm rooms enjoying several steaming hot dishes. For the poor it brought untold hardships and misery. It spelt ruin for them.
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Many offices had thin attendance as the clerks took casual leave on a mass scale to stay at home. The work in factories was also paralyse because the poor labourers could not come out of their hats in their scanty clothes. They thought it would be wise to stay at home and starve than to go out on the that freezing day. The farmers also could not work in the tields. They tried to keep themselves warm by sitting beside the cow dung15 fires. It appeared that Nature wanted the people to rest on that cold day.