Chennai: Agriculture forecaster talks of taking risks and overcoming obstacles
Chennai: Heavy rains, squalls and thunderstorms cannot deter this woman from discharging her duties. Chennai’s 44-year-old Weather woman, S. Stella, is not just the forecaster for agriculture in the Regional Meteorological Centre — a rare post for a woman — she also holds the unique distinction of being the first woman from India Meteorological Department, to take a summer expedition to Antarctica.
On the eve of Women’s Day, S Stella, director of the Agrometeorology Advisory service speaks to Deccan Chronicle, explaining her passion for weather and the struggles, she overcame to break the social stigma.
‘You are a woman. Do not take the risk of taking the trip,’ she was apparently told by her friends and colleagues. Incidentally, a man, who was her former colleague, encouraged her to take up the challenge. “Mr Majnuker, who had taken the expedition boosted the much-needed confidence in me. My parents were extremely supportive too,” says Stella, rewinding her life to December 2000.
When surviving under such extreme weather conditions itself is a challenge, Stella, who had lived on the Continent for three months from December 2000 — March 2001, had researched on the depleting ozone layer. “The trip has changed my perspective on life. I had come back as a more positive person,” she reminisced.
Multi tasking with various posts — Be it an in-charge for the flood meteorology office or the second in-charge of area cyclone warning centre, besides being the in-charge of agro meteorology in Tamil Nadu — is an accustomed and well versed task to this weather woman.
It could be decoding the observations or preparing the district level agro forecast on Tuesday and Friday of every week, Stella does it with much precision. In a pride-filled tone, she says that she had never missed a warning in 18 years of her service in Meteorology.
Pushing aside the biological difficulties that are encountered by every woman, Stella displayed great expertise in dealing with Mathematical and physical equations for the weather forecast.
“There were no particular timings when I was working as an aviation meteorologist in Chennai Airport. Despite facing the difficulties in time schedules, we, as a team used to be watchful and alert,” she mentioned. In a concluding note, she says, “I like the challenges in the work. It is the passion and the encouragement from my family, friends and colleagues, that keeps me going.”
