Interpreter of Maladies
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Summer woesThe heat is killing in Delhi and even more so in Gurgaon. The area is so arid and parched that if you are out unluckily between 9 and 5 then you are bound to get hit by the heat. The heat has made my favorite things, impossible to do-shopping and driving. There is no relief, no matter where you go. The few bushes that HUDA has generously planted in the area provide none but comic relief. There is a single park by the name of LEISURE VALLEY which is heavily thronged by visitors on the weekday evenings and weekends-add to it the "love-to-eat" Delhi culture so mummy, papa, chunnu and munnu come with a huge picnic basket, the remnants of which are left behind as memoirs of their park visit. Huh...summers-when one becomes so cranky and tired and when all you want is to have a nap in the cool environs of an AC. Roadside thirst quenchers are life savers. The lemon soda bottles and the jaljeera might not look very hygienic but are more health friendly and fresh than the coke, pepsi junk people live on. Add to it the fresh sugarcane juice machines operating every 5 km or so. The remedy to beat the heat seems to be a nice swim but Gurgaon seems to lag behind in that department too. There are country clubs all around the city but their audacity is so huge that they charge a hefty fees for a puddle that they dare call a swimming pool. I am stunned by something else though. By the patience of the fruit sellers who sell watermelons and coconuts on the same hot, arid streets that I hate to even see during the day. By the hopeful eyes of the beggar who keeps on begging alms at the traffic signal no matter what time of the day. By the small gypsy children and women who sell pirated version of books, paraphernalia and what not running around cars, cutting prices by 50% every time you show a flicker of interest. This country can never cease to amaze anybody. With the extremities of weathers and geopolitical instabilities, it probably makes people tougher every day, every hour.
