It is summer-like conditions here in the valley. I drove with the air-conditioner on--during the morning drive to campus. The temperature gauge displayed 88 as I drove back home and the air-conditioner seemed to be on strike. It is almost as if I went to sleep in Eugene and woke up in Chennai!
Somebody please send us a piece of that melting Antarctic ice sheet!
Of course, I exaggerate; the heat here is nothing compared to the conditions in Chennai. Even glancing at the weather report for Chennai makes me suffer a severe heat stroke--the unusual high temperature of today is only a tad higher than the low temperature there. Ouch!
Calling up my parents every day does not help either, because the heat there is one of the conversation items.
"It is very, very bright, and very, very hot" father said yesterday. "The humidity is so bad that I am sweating even when doing nothing" he added.
Listening to him, I started sweating here in Eugene. The power of suggestion is for real. But, apparently the power of suggestion does not work when I read about the cold Antarctic ice sheet. I suspect that when I read about it, I end up relaying the heat, causing it to melt even more ;)
Father and son wondered how we dealt with the heat in the old days, when we were both younger. He in his middle age, and I as a teenager. When there was no air conditioning.
"But, no point complaining. It is Agni Natchathiram time" father sighed.
"Exactly. That is how it will be when you are that close to the Equator" I responded, as if there was a subconscious need to make up for the formal geography credentials that I do not have.
A student showed up in my office, which is a shocker anymore. I thought I was successfully driving students away with questions to them--like about their futures, their career plans, and their absences. Darn, some survive it all; some masochists they are!
He complained about the heat, and the sweating from having biked to campus.
"I know all about that feeling, man. Back in India, all through my younger years, I biked all over the place in the heat and the humidity" I replied.
Changes in the weather conditions certainly do give us something to talk about.
Maybe I ought to thank nature--always described in the feminine as if to reflect the unpredictable behavior--for turning up the heat like this; if it were nothing but a pleasant day every single day, perhaps we will even lose the appreciation of the wonders of a pleasant day.
Thanks to the Indian summer today, I can now drool for the cool morning and a pleasant day that is forecast for Friday.
And then complain about the cold and the rain on Sunday. After all, what are we if we do not complain! ;)
3 comments:
Please don't make me ache with any more laughter complaining about the heat in the great state of Oregon !!!!' Come to Bangalore anyway - some days even in may, we did not Come mid June, the fan switches will be mothballed for the next 8 months. As for an air conditioner, what is an air conditioner ??
@Anne - Please take this young man to task for suggesting that the feminine of the species is unpredictable :)
@Ramesh - perhaps we should give him a break on this one. Clearly the heat was causing his neurons to misfire. Everyone knows Mother Nature is feminine because she provides life-giving weather to the planet. Just don't anger her! Besides, where is the fun in predictability, be it male or female?
Btw, I found it a little warm but did not run my air conditioner.
Ok Ramesh, I will find out for myself how "cool" Bangalore is in late June. If I see those fans working, you owe me a gazillion bazillion dollars--not those pretty colored paper called rupees ;)
(speaking of rupees and dollars, did you catch this wonderful news item about a young gir?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-27388104)
My neurons always misfire, Anne, whatever the conditions. Ask my students--that story continues in my latest post!
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