(Audrey) I got up today at 7:15 a.m. and started sweating. Even in my bedroom, with a window-unit a.c. having been blasting for eight hours continuously through the night, it was around 80° F. I moved into the kitchen to make my morning tea. Water boils in around 60 seconds these days, it’s so warm already. Even at 7:30 a.m., it was already around 95° in my kitchen. I got dressed and went outside, hardly ready to tackle the day. It was already over a 100° at 8:30 a.m., and by midday we were over 110°, 60 percent humidity. Did you know that your stomach can sweat quite profusely if provoked enough?
What do you do to combat this unbelievable, truly inhumane weather? For starters, I’ve had to relearn all my portions about water. That whole 8 glasses a day thing… try 8 liters a day, and we’re at least in the ballpark of my life recently. Also on water, I don’t do dishes after around 11 a.m. anymore. Like most houses in Delhi, we store our water on the roof, so it literally bakes all day long and scorches my hands if used during the day. Second, never walk, ever. I’ve even stopped arguing with the cycle-rickshaw wallahs about prices… I’m not going to walk in this heat, so if they’re willing to bicycle me around, they get to name the price. Finally, if one must leave the house during daylight hours, take the metro.
The Delhi metro, much to its credit, has the most amazing air-conditioning system I have ever experienced, either in India or beyond. All stations below ground are fully air-conditioned (hello NYC, you paying attention?), and the trains themselves manage to actually keep cool, even with the crush of people and sweat. It’s awe-inspiring. Here’s a shot of the line for the train on a Monday afternoon at 2 p.m. (i.e. low time)—
All these people will get on the next train, and trains run about every 4 minutes. Indians don’t settle for just packing-in like sardines—they do entwined together like old lovers and then let’s double-it up just to see if we can actually all have our feet on the floor in this train. And I can always still feel cool air running down my back—thank the gods for small wonders of modernity.
July 18, 2010 at 11:18 am |
[...] at home in the US. There are none of the struggles in Europe that marked my life in India—heat, lack of infrastructure, road rage involving baseball bats, not being able to communicate, frequent [...]
August 29, 2010 at 8:57 pm |
The last para has me ROFL-ing and bringing out the voice of this desi mute spectator! LOL when I was India, I figured out a way to beat the madness at Connaught Place in New delhi, always use the end cars to exit, u will never be thrown back in. Indian train, Indian mind
All these people will get on the next train, and trains run about every 4
minutes. Indians don’t settle for just packing-in like sardines—they do entwined together like old lovers and then let’s double-it up just to see if we can actually all have our feet on the floor in this train. And I can always still feel cool air running down my back—thank the gods for small wonders of modernity.