The Heat and Boris Johnson
The Heat
It is that time of the year again. It is wonderful living in a tropical climate and I know that I don't miss the UK weather. For most of the year, the weather in Bangalore is warm, sunny and comfortable to live with. In fact, I think the best time of year is from November until February, it is warm in the day but cooler and easy to sleep at night. After February, it suddenly becomes very hot and humid. If you are on holiday and do not have to move far it is fine, but when you need to do everyday things, it starts to be very draining. It feels like you can't breathe some days as the air is so hot, it is like walking with a hairdryer on the hot setting, although sometimes there is no breeze and it is perfectly still. Today it was 38 degrees in the shade and very humid.
Sometimes by eight in the morning, it is too hot to walk in and you have to be determined if you are going somewhere. You find yourself looking at the sky to see if there are any clouds on the horizon. If they bubble up then the excitement starts to rise. Usually they disperse but sometimes, just sometimes, we will get some rain.
Last week, we actually had some rain on 4 afternoons. It lowered the temperature so that we could finally walk without too much bother, Andy was so happy. He cannot go out unless it is early in the morning or late at night because the pavement is actually too hot to walk on. He spends most of his day stretched out full length on the tiled floor so his tummy is cool. He has numerous fans he can choose from so he is a lucky, spoilt boy.
At night, we are sleeping with our air-conditioning on full blast (plus two fans). We probably will be only eating toast when we get the electricity bill!
But, of course, we are very fortunate. We have a choice. Swapna and Sandra were saying that they keep their windows closed, because of the mosquitoes, and they have ceiling fans, but when the power goes off (which it does a lot ) then they have nothing to relieve the heat. Sometimes this happens all night. They say they can't sleep as it is too hot and usually get up at 4 in the morning and go outside where it is cooler. We, on the other hand, have a back up generator which will operate our fans, although not the air conditioning, when our power goes off.
Sandra doesn't even have running water or a toilet, although she is about to move to a house with both. She has to carry the water in a bucket from the tap down the road and then up some stairs to her flat. The toilet, not clean apparently, is at the end of the road.
The heat is very tough on some people here.
Boris Johnson
Whatever you may think about all the kerfuffle in the UK about the covid parties, I felt sorry for Boris arriving in all this heat. That is a punishment in itself.
He arrived in India last week. Now, Indian people get very excited when they have to put on a show, they are very happy and will be extremely attentive to your needs, which you either like or you don't like.
Boris was on the TV all through the day, having a turban put on his head, being presented with garlands, having shawls draped around his shoulders and generally being fussed over, as the Indian nation welcomes him in the best way that they can. It was lovely to see their enthusiasm.
However, this is all in 40 degrees of heat AND Boris was wearing a suit and tie! He looked extremely uncomfortable the other day and extremely hot. As the day progressed, he was getting redder and redder. He was smiling but and was very accommodating so he did well. In the background, was the UK's top diplomat in India the British High Commissioner, Alex Ellis, who we met the other week for Andrew's presentation. (more about him in a minute)
I am pleased it was not me in all that heat, I would have been in a heap on the floor with steam coming out of my ears, begging to go into an air conditioned room. I hope he has recovered. We have another month left of this heat...
