Chills of Summer!!!!

Considering the fact that we are absolutely in the middle of the biggest season of the year, I would like to ask each of my reader, how are you guys? By the biggest season, I do not mean wedding season, which is probably comes second in my present list. I am talking about our very near and dear summer season. Happy to hear the word? No? So, let me ask you again… How are you?

Freezing? Chilled? Cool? Or the correct words would be roasted, boiled and toasted? Let me share the exact feeling I have when I hear that word. Summer is not yellow fields of mustard flowers or white sand blue water beaches where someone would lie down for hours to get that perfect tan while sipping some cool drink from coconuts with little umbrellas in it. No dude! That may be summer in the European continent. How boring! Summer in India is way more entertaining than that. Here this season is definitely the one time when everyone becomes an indoor person. People love their homes and poor corporate souls who are forced to wander out, they fall double shot in love with their offices. Reason, obviously, is the obesity-inducing-but-most-important-necessity-in-summer factor- air conditioner. Two ultimate golden words in summer.  It is absolutely impossible to survive without this in summer. Any other time, it is normal for any corporate folk to crib about going to office even in weekdays, but during summer, they are ready to sacrifice even their specially planned rarely available weekends as well to be in office. This is not because of dedication to work, but due to the greed of centralized cooling. At homes, bedroom becomes the most favorite spot and gradually all your other rooms like dining room, study room and living room, etc shift to your bedroom because most households have their ACs installed in the bedrooms. So just as summer approaches, the TV set is wired in the bedroom so that you don’t have to suffer other than the absolute need to go to bathroom or cooking. Well, mothers as always suffer the most since they feel the utter need to cook and feed their family.

This is the story of indoor India. But whatever you do, you can’t stay indoors forever. You have to get out and face the truth. When the Indian public gets out of their beautiful world in to the real world, the harsh and rude reality of the sun treats with extra blinding brightness and iron melting warmth. The rays of the sun would not stop until they drill a burning hole in your skin. You tend to use umbrellas more this time than during the rains. If you are a foodie and you stuck in traffic under the hot toasty sun, your supernatural all powerful nose might catch the fleeing smells of some tandoors and barbeque in the air. If this happens, please don’t get excited that you might have some fine dine restaurant nearby which is roasting your favorite chicken. Instead please check the bare parts of your body first, like your feet and your hands, chances are more that the smell is of your flesh getting barbequed under the great Surya devta with the salty seasoning of your sweat which is running all over your body! Yes, my friends, I know and I understand we are all aware of the direct sun burns that we get every day while driving bikes or even simply walking in this weather. I seriously find it ridiculous when I see some foreigner going to Goa to get that sunburn and proudly boasting it to their friends. Ask them to drive a bike through Silk Board signal (Bangalore) or try crossing Milan Subway (Mumbai) at around 9 am in the morning. I doubt they would ever come back for getting tanned or ever enjoy the phrase “sunburn” ever again. Their memories would be scarred forever, just like ours.

Summer is also the time when you understand the meaning of the phrase “bum roast” properly. Well, for those who are wondering what I am talking about, please remember all those moments when you would have just placed your precious bum on the seats of  your poor scooty or bike after you had gone indoors leaving your scooty/bike alone to be fried in the rude sun. For the next few moments, you would be citing out the names of all your close ones a lot!! Or may be some pretty beeped words.! You would be the only one who can understand the meaning of the phrase “Bum Roast” that time. We all have faced such moments at some points in our lives, all credit goes to our life source.

Is there anything that is good about summer? Your darling Reshmi kebab would be calling you with those inviting, intriguing looks but instead of immersing your teeth in delicious juicy chicken, you would be swallowing curd rice!! Why? Because your stomach would not be able to welcome reshmi kebab as it should due to the bloody high temperatures of your surroundings. I mean this is plain cruelty!! How do you expect to live with that!! The only abundantly available vegetables which are not the gifts of hybrid India are potato and pointed gourd. I can’t even blame my Mom for the decreasing variety in her kitchen. There are only so many things which you can make in this evaporating climate which would suit you and your stomach. The absolute zeal of even thinking of eating anything delicious masked with a lot of different spices abandons you for good and you just stay lazy and tired as if you have ran in a marathon and sweated out a bucket like Milkha Singh, without actually even moving your body an extra inch!

And if you are blessed with a humid place along with public transport, you would definitely have clear nose and heightened sense of smell, owing to the regular mode of travel squeezed between several arm pits. Staying in a humid place during summer gives you a practical lesson of 8^th standard physics- Mechanism of Pressure cooker. You actually understand the painful feelings of the vegetables and rice which are boiled every day at home. You can literally feel the air, correction, misty air closing in on you and the temperature rising, each sorry line of sweat dripping slowly through each part of your body, your hairs getting wet because of sweat and that line dripping over tip of your nose and drop into your lips. You can feel your kajal getting smudged slowly and your shirt gradually sticking to your body like its survival depends on it. If you have or are experiencing this feeling, please remember that you are being boiled. Not evaporated, since you are too heavy and the air too humid for that, so just boiled, inside the natural pressure cooker of a city like Kolkata.

All said and done, is summer so bad? If yes, why so? Around 10 years back, it was not so hot or summers were not so long around here. So what changed? Obvious answer is, modernization crept in and seeped out the natural cool from the face of the Earth gradually. With ice caps melting, who knows how much worse summers can get in our future. But as my Dad puts it, “Enjoy the chills of summer”. Every season is essential. Without summer we could never enjoy or crave the rains that follow or treasure the winters which blows in next. Without summer, we would never be able to enjoy the King of Fruits- Mangoes, not artificial Maaza or Frooty, but real fresh and juicy Mangoes. A bite of this sweet fruit, gives immense pleasure to the glucose levels of your blood and relief to your soul. And not to mention the increased sales of the cold coffees and ice creams. Also, the unprecedented and complete rule of cotton over our wardrobes and the short shorter shortening length and width of our summer dresses. And, how can we forget, extensive use of deodorants and perfumes!! What else do you need!! You have to be social enough to think about their businesses as well, right?

So, again, I would like to re-iterate my question… How are you this summer? Hot and boiled? Or Chilled and roasted? Whatever your answer may be.. Keep calm and enjoy the summer!! It only lasts so long!! J :P ;)