Here are your choices - Hot and Humid or Hot and Dusty. That is the call you have to take in India every summer, and frankly I have honestly wondered why our forefathers occupied this oppressive land. When I was a kid and school carried on till the second week of May in Delhi, the heat was so intense it was not funny. I travelled to Pune on Wednesday and realised why I don't miss the oppressively dry heat of Delhi summers anymore. Imagine taking a hot Iron and holding it 6-8 inches above your skin - it is that bad. And when you add 'The Loo', every Delhi-ites favourite metereological phenomenon, plus a healthy dose of crushed Aravali rock and Thar sand, the amazing and fascinating Delhi summer is complete.
Not that Bombay is any better. But here it is the humidity that kills you. Whereas Delhi has a humidity level somewhere near 0.00001, in Bombay it seems all the water magically entered the atmosphere and then found its way to the back, front and sides of your shirt. Ten minutes after you walk out of your house, after showering. By the time I reach office I am a physical marvel, because my body has shed a couple of tens of litres of water.
And now I have decided, in complete sanity (or insanity) to travel down the Konkan and Malabar coast for a holiday. Why I am doing this is beyond me, but I am, I think it has something to do with my parents and my screwed-up upbringing or maybe even the those 23 chromosomes didn't all match up correctly (and I've found two crazy compatriots to come along with me). Sensible people go to Switzerland, even Shimla. I'm going to Kerela. I don't think all my friends and family are still aware of my gloriously mad intentions, but they soon will be.
This will have one side effect though, posts will become highly irregular and I will not be touch with the world. So wish me luck.
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6 comments:
K, you are welcome to come and get a taste of Nagpur. The temperature *inside* my room now is 34 deg celsius. Going out in the sun is not too great because vehicle seats and handles reach temperatures that could prepare omlettes in seconds. Or perhaps Butt Barbecue, anyone? Yahoo says temperature at 1.10 pm was 43 degrees outside.
Fun, eh?
Yay for Central air-conditioning!
Hey dry heat is better than a pressure cooker climate anyday. Would anyone prefer Chennai in the summer over, say, Pune? Never in a million years.
I was born and dragged up in a place with pretty high humidity (not quite Chennai but very close in summer) but can't imagine going back there now once I've tasted dry Bangalore.
Trust me Buddy in the afternoon in Delhi when the Loo hits, you wish you had some sweat on your body. Delhi is like a furnace and the dust just makes things worse, and then you get an andhi that will send dust and sand everywhere.
But considering I spent a great many of childhood's summers in sticky Calcutta, you don't want to choose between the two cities - the best ever summer in my life was spent in Meghalaya. OK, only 10 days, but worth the 36 hour train journey to escape Delhi.
I wonder where the blatant consumerism of nowadays was - in Cal, we had only one AC in my grandfathers house which dated back to 1960 something and that was only used on Sundays.
But we're a hardy souls - but I agree with anon 2 - thank god for central aircon!
Pu on aircon in car and drive through the summer, best thing to do, in the middle of the day, empty roads and shimmering sands and mirages and stuff. What are you flogging, some new Merc?
Me, I am heading for Delhi by road in a couple of days, taking the long looping route, via Dhulia - Bikaner. Magic car.
On the numbers up, some of us are trying to help you become famous and keep refreshing for the heck of it. Why not?
At the very least, our forefathers should have generated enough wealth to keep everyone in the nation in central airconditioning, like the Gulf Arabs manage to do.
But honestly, in the villages, you don't really need A/C, all you need is a mud-plastered house with small windows and facing the right direction. My grandparents' neighbour in the village has a house like that, and it would be a boon in summertime.
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