With a song on their lips, three women work on their field in ankle-deep water, removing weeds from around the newly sprouted green paddy plants. Their kin, Sumana, working on the adjacent field, hums along. This scene in Sisai village would have been unimaginable till barely three weeks ago. For the first time, all the 24 districts of Jharkhand had been declared drought-hit, but incessant rains during the past three weeks changed the situation, ushering in hope and cheer for the farmers. For the second consecutive year, monsoon, on which farmers are heavily dependent, had failed them. The deficit in rain had left large tracks of land barren, and there was shortage of water for cattle. Even ponds, wells and dams such as Gonda, Rukka and Dhurva that supplied water to residents in Ranchi, had less than 30 per cent of their total capacity. Just when the entire state was in deep despair, incessant rains filled up the water bodies to more than half of their capacity.