SOME observations about India in May. Temperatures at 46/49C. Daytime the sunlight is hard to take, perhaps early morning and then late at night around 8.00 p.m. you get a little relief. Even then, it is still humid, a warm air blows, and most days there is no wind. If you don’t have an AC room or an AC car, then life gets very difficult. If you step out of the car, it feels like you have walked into an oven. You can have a cooler in one’s room and fan and hope to get a sound night’s sleep but without AC, almost impossible to sleep without feeling sweaty and uncomfortable. You have to drink constantly to remain hydrated.
Whilst I was there, a man, his wife and sister-in-law,
the three of them went out in the daytime from their village near a major city
to collect some fruit in the nearby jungle. They walked some 10km. After a day,
the villagers complained to the Police, that the people had gone missing. The
Police searched the area and found the man and his wife dead from heat stroke,
lying on the ground near the jungle, the sister-in-law lay unconscious, but she
survived somehow. A sad story and I thought was it necessity or a lack of
education that caused these deaths. Several other people had died in the heat too,
in cities from heat stroke and exhaustion. The summer heat is not something to
trifle with or to be underestimated. Last year over 1500 people died due to the
heat, and this year it will be worse.
The traffic is still a joke, it made me
laugh as I went around, there is no traffic sense; at a roundabout, it’s
everyone for himself; he who dares, wins. If you wait, then people horn from
behind! Why are you waiting, just push right in, others will give way. It’s a
wonder the roads were not a crash site.
When
you cross the road, look both ways, because cars, scooters, rickshaws all seem
to drive as they please, reversing on main roads or not in the least concerned about
one-way flows. One late afternoon, the driver passed through seven red lights
along with everyone else; when I enquired about that, he said calmly, it was
too hot to wait in the traffic lights, and there were no cops around. At cross
roads, others waited, or sometimes you had to break hard and stop. Who needs
Pleasure Beach thrill rides?
Yes, India is progressing at a rapid pace
with new tower blocks and developments, but everywhere I felt a sense of
anxiety. This is nothing new, it has been the same for the past 15 years or so;
everyone wants to get ahead, buy a better car, house, job, education and there
are too many people chasing too few places. This materialistic anxiety saddens
me, and perhaps India has to pass through this transition phase before it finds
its original peace, calm and charm. Maybe it has been lost forever. Even in
villages, people are burdened with material wants, if they get the chance to
leave the village, they will find their way to the city or nearby town.
There is this constant friction between
traditions and the modern way of life. A young woman got married last month,
then as she was being driven back to the groom side in Rajasthan, she asked to
stop for a bathroom break. She walked out in her jewels and fine red wedding
dress.
After half
an hour, someone suggested to check for the bride if she was all right. They
checked the bathroom, but the young woman had disappeared leaving her wedding
dress on the ground but being careful to take the jewellery. Someone saw her
wearing jeans and a t-shirt and riding off with a young man on a bike.
The
groom side were left very angry and embarrassed, how did they hope to return
home without the bride? And without looking ridiculous. The young woman had some
daring, but it’s obvious that she was being forced to
marry against her will, all the same, she should have planned her escape before
marriage and saved her parents the huge wedding cost; maybe she planned her
revenge this way. Who knows, but such true stories continue to add to the
anxiety present in India.
Therefore, from the scorching heat, I
return to British summer temperatures, and yes you guessed it, there is Rain
and the temperature is a solid 15 C, a welcome change I can assure you.
