Sri Lanka, Oct. 24 -- Sri Lanka's monsoon rains have brought floods, landslides, and rising dengue risk across the island. While transport and crops face disruption, the downpours also refill reservoirs, revive farmlands, and cool the air. The season, though harsh, reminds Sri Lankans of endurance - and the balance between nature's challenge and its gift.

The rains have come again, steady and unforgiving. From the villages along the Deduru Oya, now on flood alert, to the misty hills where the National Building Research Organisation has warned of landslides in eleven districts, the island is drenched. Roads have become rivers. Train lines have paused. Markets are struggling to keep vegetables on the shelves as fields lie underwater.

Stil...