Haryana, India(CNN) Every afternoon at this time of year, Balraj Beniwal looks up at the sky, hoping to see dark clouds. He is not alone -- there are hundreds of millions of people like him across India.
"Before the monsoons arrive, the clouds get thick and start rumbling. The wind picks up and the whole environment changes," says Beniwal, a farmer in northern Indian state of Haryana, when asked to describe the beginning of his favorite season.
After two consecutive years of drought, India's farming community, which makes up half of the country's 1.31 billion population, is desperate for a wet monsoon in 2016.
The early signs are good. Roads flooded in Kerala, as the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) announced that the year's first monsoon rains had arrived in the country's south.
However, it's expected to take days, if not weeks, for relief to arrive to farmers in the country's north like Beniwal, who are waiting, watching, for the first sign of rain.
Legendary photographer documents vast country over three decades
What is it about Steve McCurry's portraits that instantly draws you into the raw gaze of his subjects?
From McCurry's famous
"Afghan Girl" image, to the one above of a brilliantly decorated tribal elder in Rajasthan, the legendary American photographer has gained a reputation for bewitching portraiture in some of the most dramatic landscapes on Earth.
Now McCurry's new book,
"India," showcases three decades of his spectacular photographs from this vast country.
Flick through the gallery to see images from the book.
The gleaming white marble of the Taj Mahal is vividly contrasted against the dirty black steam of a passing train, in this 1983 photograph.
Scottish historian and writer of numerous books on India, William Dalrymple, sees McCurry as a master at capturing India's "extraordinary contradictions."
"Perhaps most stark among the extremes McCurry illustrates are those between India's rich and poor," says Dalrymple in his written introduction to "India."
"We see the landowner with his hunting trophies pinned to the wall, and we see the beggar children dying beside the railway tracks, invisible to the passengers on the train; we see the soaked beggar children fingering desperately at the windows of the taxi; and we see the Bombay elite, coiffed and laundered, with their fleets of vintage cars and uniformed chauffeurs..."
McCurry's most famous image is undoubtedly his portrait of an "Afghan Girl" which graced the cover of National Geographic in 1985.
It's not so dissimilar to this striking portrait of a "Girl in Red," taken in Jaipur, Rajasthan, in 1983.
Here, India's Camel Corps patrol desert near the Pakistan border, in 1996.
"McCurry's India is, above all, a world of paradox," explains Dalrymple.
"It is where border guards ride camels through the timeless deserts of the Thar, carrying the latest in modern M-16 high-velocity assault rifles."
McCurry's remarkable photojournalism career began more than three decades ago, when he crossed the Pakistan border into Afghanistan disguised in native clothes.
He returned with rolls of film sewn onto the inside of his garb, and later won the prestigious Robert Capa Gold Medal for his work.
This image shows bicylcles hanging from the side of a passing train in West Bengal, 1983.
The Magnum photographer has a special talent for capturing people's everyday lives with great compassion.
Here, Mahouts -- people who ride elephants professionally -- are depicted sleeping beside their giant, brightly painted animal.
This image depicts a devotee carrying a statue of Lord Ganesh into the waters of the Arabian Sea, during the immersion ritual off Chowpatty Beach in Mumbai, 1993
"For all the silliness and vulgarity that McCurry photographs in modern urban India, he never forgets that India is still a profoundly sacred land," says Dalrymple.
"It is, after all, a country with 2.5 million places of worship, but only 1.5 million schools and barely 75,000 hospitals. Pilgrimages account for more than half of all package tours, and the bigger pilgrimage sites vie with the Taj Mahal in popularity: 17.25 million trekked to the shrine of Vaishno Devi."
"McCurry has made many of these holy treks himself, and the rich tapestry of India's different faiths is one of the enduring themes of his work," continues Dalrymple.
"There are beautiful images of devotees immersing statues of Ganesh in the sea at Mumbai, or playing Holi, the festival of colors, in Rajasthan, or visiting astrologers on the ghats of Varanasi."
This luminously-colored photograph shows the crowd carrying a man during the Holi Festival in Rajasthan, in 1996.
There is both the sense of a photographer's wry smile and tenderness in this image of a smartly dressed couple wading through monsoon waters in Porbandar, Gujarat, in 1983.
The water-soaked couple couldn't be more removed from this other-worldly 1996 image of Harshvardhan Singh, son of the Maharawal of Dungarpur, relaxing at home surrounded by a vast array of exotic taxidermy animals.
"McCurry's work represents a genuine panorama of the country, from the Rajasthan desert dust storms to monsoon-flooded Bengali villages, from Kashmir to Kerala," says Dalrymple.
"His is a world of limpid light, burning colors and darkest shadow, in mood both melancholy and festive. From the massed crowds of Kumbh to a lone woodsman in the Himalayan forest, all Indian humanity is here."
Why rain is vital
India is considered the only major economy in the world dependent on weather. About 18% of its $2.1 trillion Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes from agriculture. Most of that agriculture depends on the June to September monsoon, which account for more than two-thirds of the country's annual rainfall.
The monsoon rains are vital for the country's economy, since 63% of India's farmlands are not connected to irrigation.
Beniwal's family owns 10 acres of land in Bhiwani, a village in the Indian state of Haryana -- which produces 16.97 million tonnes of foodgrains yearly, the second largest foodgrains contributor to India's central pool.
They primarily grow paddy and millet, and because they depend on rainwater irrigation, Beniwal has no choice but to hope for showers -- the heavier the better.
"If it rains, then one acre of land can get us 20 to 25 thousand rupees ($300 to $370). But if it doesn't rain, then we have to pay around 10 thousand rupees ($150) from our pocket for all the resources used in farming," he says.
Finally, a good year?
The good news is that the monsoon forecast for this year is positive. India's weather department predicts "above normal" rainfall, a prediction the country's stock market is cheering on, as a good agricultural output means an increase in consumer consumption in India's massive rural section engaged in farming.
The weak monsoons over the past two years haven't affected the country's economic growth, which grew at 7.9% in the most recent fiscal quarter that ended on March 31, securing its standing as the world's fastest growing major economy.
But while Prime Minister Narendra Modi optimistically crowed about the nation's performance when speaking to a community of Indians in Qatar recently, these numbers mean nothing to Beniwal.
"We hear India is growing. Where? I think they should make it clear which parts of India are growing," he says.
"We don't see that in our village. I don't see where that growth is happening -- maybe in bigger cities? Here, we are reeling with same old-age problem. Our grandparents spent their life praying to the 'rain god'; I've been doing the same all my life. My children's future is no different," Beniwal says.
Shrinking reserves
According to government statistics, India's major reservoirs are currently holding only 17% of their total capacity. Bhiwani is no exception. Driving around Bhiwani, one can see nothing but dry canals and miles and miles of parched farmlands.
Wild animals, such as the nilgai antelope, or blue bull as they're known, can be seen running around the village, seeking water.
Every villager you meet in Bhiwani talks about nothing but a robust rainfall, praying for moisture-laden clouds.
So desperate are they that Bhiwani's villagers recently held prayers at a local temple to please the Hindu 'rain god' Indra, asking to see their canals flow and farmlands wet again.
"We don't have a river. We don't have a well either, or enough ground water. We are completely dependent on the monsoon. The underground water is too salty for crops to grow," complains another farmer, Rajesh Kumar Beniwal.
"The last two to three years have been hell for us. Wherever you go, people are just thinking what to do next. Farmers here have sold their animals and homes to pay the debt. People sometimes think of selling their kids -- that's how bad it is," Rajesh says.
CNN's Sumnima Udas and Sudhanshu Kaushik contributed to this report.