Today was the hottest day I've ever felt. 44 degrees celcius or 112 F. It is a humid heat. A heat that takes the power out intermittently in the afternoon. Living in fear of a power outage when I'm trapped on a crowded elevator, I take the stairs in the heat. I've stopped wearing my contact lenses. The minute I step outdoors, they dry out. Indoors, the air conditioning dries them out. I wonder what Indians do about it? They can't all wear glasses? Tonight we took a rickshaw across town to a fancy dinner. It had to be over 100 degrees at 8pm. The streets are full of people. All day long they are holed up inside their homes, lounging around, minimizing every effort in the heat of the day. Night comes and they take to the streets. It's so hot I feel claustrophobic. There is a heat-induced panic attack lurking just below the surface. I remind myself to just breathe. It feels like there is an elephant sitting on my chest. Impossible to take in air. The monsoons come in a few weeks. These are the hottest days of the year.
At breakfast, a nice man from Jaipur was sitting with us. He was complaining about the heat. He comes from the north, the desert in Rajasthan, where it is a dry heat. Even he is complaining. It sure is hot.
Australia (at least Adelaide) is like that as well or it can be. The last Xmas I spent in Adelaide it was over 42C for the last week we were there. There's no escaping it as everyone has evaporative a/c which fails under those conditions. Even the ocean was humid at 8 pm. I can't imagine taking caring of newborns under such conditions. I feel for you and am sending you icy thoughts; in fact, ice was the only thing that did help a little. I put it in my head on every occasion and let it drip down as it melted.
ReplyDelete