Dark clouds shut out the sun all day in Guwahati, prompting a number of cars to switch on their headlights in mid afternoon on Sunday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati/Shillong, Oct. 26: If the dark pall of clouds dampened your pre-Diwali plans today, the weather office warned that this is only a curtain raiser.

A moisture-thirsty cyclonic depression over the Bay of Bengal is conspiring to ensure a wet Diwali for the region and is likely to cause heavy rainfall in the next 72 hours.

A senior meteorologist at the Regional Meteorological Centre at Borjhar, H.N. Das, said warning notices were issued to the chief secretaries of the northeastern states this afternoon since the low-pressure belt over the north Bay of Bengal is fast moving towards West Bengal and the Bangladesh coast.

This means widespread and heavy rainfall and storms over the entire region.

“Rainfall has already started in many parts of the region and the situation will deteriorate in the next 72 hours. The sun will not be visible in most of the region till October 29. There will be heavy to very heavy rainfall with strong winds in Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland,” Das said.

Though neighbouring Bangladesh will probably bear the maximum brunt of the swirling moisture-laden winds, Guwahati and its neighbouring areas will receive continuous rainfall on October 27, 28 and 29.

Though the Met office termed the “condition” as “normal” during the withdrawal of monsoon, Guwahatians found nothing normal in having to spend a wet and stormy Dhanteras, the gilt-edged festival of gold-buying two days before Diwali.

With only a Monday separating Diwali from the weekend, most residents had decided to make the most of crisp autumn weather till the depression decided to play spoilsport.

Footfall at gold and jewellery shops was alarmingly low on Dhanteras, a day for which businessmen wait the year round for some heavy-duty sale.

Every year, hundreds descend on gold shops to stack in some jewels, refusing to let go this singular opportunity when religion sanctions the glitter greed.

If the slump in markets had already raised fears of a dip in sales this year, the weather sealed it.

And then there was the firecracker market, which found every reason to complain.

“I know people will still buy, but I am not sure whether all this will be sold if the rain continues,” Shyamlal Sahu at Fancy Bazar said.

A small-time trader, Sahu sets up a firecracker shop during Diwali and moves to other goods the rest of the year.

Eating-out, the other festive pastime, was also hit.

“My family planned to go for dinner at a dhaba in the Sonapur area, but the rain has dampened our spirits and finally we have decided to stay at home,” Madhurjya Barua, a bank employee, said.

If Guwahati missed out on its pre-Diwali preparations, Shillong quietly slipped into winter mode.

A steady drizzle pulled down temperatures to 12.1 degrees Celsius.

There were very few Sunday Church-goers and most chose to remain indoors, lending a bandh-like atmosphere to the entire town.

If the Met office’s predictions are proved right, the entire region will have to pull out its blankets tomorrow.