Weather

With the gloriously blazing summer this year, everyone I meet in most of the metros around the country talk about only one thing, the heat. The weather as a topic, comes up within five minutes into any conversation. 'It's too hot', 'it's too humid', 'it's too dry', 'have to buy a new fan or air conditioner' or 'fix the one that's not working so well' etc etc, these are the stuff that dominates all our conversation. It's almost a national obsession, that and all the mess that we call the Indian Premier League. I don't think the weather has changed much over the thirty six years of my life (global warming not withstanding), come summer the mercury touches 40C and sometimes goes beyond. But somehow, it's almost like we've become a nation of tender skinned people in dire need of SPF40, waiting to get out of the sun and into the cooler confines of our homes or offices.

I can't remember a day during my summer vacations as a kid or anyone I knew having a problem with the weather. If it was daytime, it was time to play cricket out in the open, plain and simple. Of course, would be interrupted by the infrequent visits of the Water Lorry, which means you get stuck with standing in longish queues, carrying loads of water inside the house etc, which was tough work and nostalgia doesn't make it seem any better now. But most of all the time was well spent in getting dirty in about a hundred different days and landing up back at home when the sunsets and waiting for the daylight to come the next day.

The point that I'm trying to make is quite simple, we live in a country that's hot 7 to 10 months of the year, depending on where you live. The more we hate it, the more it becomes a factor in our lives, either you move to New Zealand or Canada or Iceland (and start obsessing about the cold) or just enjoy the weather for what it's worth.