GARAM HAWA

[Dear Readers, It's been a while since we spoke or write-right! Though as you already know I'm still a lazy person, who has been on errands for seeking new ideas, and finally after severe aches, here I'm again]

21june'23(Summer solstice)

As a young girl who has introduced to LG (ultra slim model) color television, I enjoyed watching anything that moved on the screen. In fact, back then, I even enjoyed weather reports on news channels. Words like-Anumaan, Andesha, Aasaar, Sambhavana, Taapmaan, Jalvaau, Mausam, Mansoon, Raftaar(not the hip-hop artist), etc are etched on the canvas of my childhood. In short- I've always been fascinated by the weather. Weather,  at the risk of sounding poetic, feels like you passing through something. That, ladies and gentlemen is the beauty of our annual ride around the sun. As our Earth orbits around the sun, we experience new seasons and weather. I just love the way the earth rotates, it really does make my day and night. If you are a person just worrying about climate change and think the earth is ending today. Don't be! Because it's already tomorrow in Newzealand and Australia.

Recently IMD sounded a red alert for the northern part of Gangetic Plain. Where the temperature crossed 42 degrees Celsius (Damn! That's as bad as my college degree.)  Air pressure decrease and Air get thick as the public sense, plants are working overtime with photosynthesis. It is like 'Suraj ka satvaan ghoda' shouting from the top, informing us about summer's arrival. On the warmer side, Indian summers sucks! Unless and until you're a migratory bird with the mission to spread your wings(and seeds). With the kind of summer India enjoys, it's no surprise that Buddha attained Nirvana hiding under the tree.  

The hot scorching summer reminds us of our weekly war with the sun, which is- Raviwar. One of the famous Urdu poet Rahat Indoori, blame the summer weather for changing the very structure of science, poetry, art, and romance all at one stroke. He said- 

शहर क्या देंखे कि हर मंज़र में जाले पड़ गए 

ऐसी गर्मी है कि पीले फूल काले पड़ गए । 

                                               

While we are fused with the sun in a constant battle against the destructive force of nuclear fusion. Some of the following traitors shamelessly joined hands with the viral rival Sun. 

• LIZARDS:-  To survive the summer, I need to keep my Raushandans open and the door latched. That's when they slowly entered through the ceiling, then they became the elephant in the room. There's a Hindi proverb that is 'Dewar ke bhi kaan hoten hain' those ears are basically lizards. Their rapid summer breeding leads to rapid breeding of ill will towards them. It's easy catching a mouse than driving a lizard out of one's life.

• ELECTRICITY BOARD:- In schools, we were taught about bonds in science. Covalent and ionic bonds. All living and nonliving forms function on the 'power' of connection internally as well as externally. As per basic physics, we are aware that great power comes with an electricity bill and a potential headache. During summer, electricity consumption tends to increase. Electricity board employees kill their boredom by playing a game of timing the power outage just when the mercury hit the maximum. In a power outage, the first step is admitting that you are powerless. Bonus points are scored when an outage is brought about at night. That's when I sleep on a rooftop in a soaked T-shirt.      
  
  
• MOSQUITOS:- Dalai lama once said 'If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in the dark with mosquitos'. After a late summer rainfall, the mosquitos made their presence. They might even train an army to kick you out, but not before sucking you dry. They are responsible for the most number of deaths in human history. They earned their place in the food chain. What is hard to believe is the fact that we are their food and if we manage to clap them to death. They don't care about any of this and keep trying their best to sink their satanic proboscis into us. 

• SEATS OF TWO-WHEELER:- While the summer burns our posteriors abstractly, more concrete evidence is experienced when someone sits on a two-wheeler. The seats can become too hot that they feel like cooking surfaces and you can make Omelette and Dosa on them. A simple mantra then is to spit on the seat and then sit.   
  
  

• TRAFFIC JAM:-  Being stuck in sunny traffic, is a gruesome exercise for the person in you who pretends to be patient. If you're a human with limbs and stay in the oven like a car or cab, you have my sympathies, but at the same time, I take delight in the assumption that maybe this is what hell is all about. 

• WEDDING PUNDITS:- Surprisingly these learned wise men come up with wedding dates that lie in the midst of the summer. The world must pour its pity on a Baraat dancing on the street at scorching 40 degrees Celsius. The groom's face says it all. One would find tying the knot of a tie more painful than a wedding knot

• CRICKET MATCH ORGANIZERS:- I hate hate hate, daytime matches. Boys/Girls remain least concerned with the blazing bright sun spitting flares in the daytime. These are the people who own a lifetime stock of sunscreen and sunglasses. Have you ever watched a cricketer cry on the batting pitch? Never no! Because they run all the daytime, the body loses water when they run. So they have none for tears. 
  
  
           

In essence, If there is a god out there, I would like to say that-'God! whatever you're baking outside, it's done.' As I discuss the sun, our viral rival, its beauty lies in its sunset- when the sun is all about to set and all the birds are alarmed as they rush back to the safety of their nest, and bats(and fellow nocturnal rockstars) emerge out from their slumber. The sky goes through a theater of changing palettes for a few minutes. The greatest artwork is on display just like Van Gogh's painting. 

Of course, the sun hurt us, and of course, we will hurt each other but this is the very condition of existence. To become Mansoon(Or Ashadh ka ek din) means accepting the risk of Indian summer. Become presence means accepting the risk of absence. 

                            _G