The Air(s) of Summer!

It is burning hot in Chennai. It is barely May and it is scorching hot. Eight ‘o’ clock sun should already give you a stroke in your head. Well it is summer time folks. The thought of the sultry heat petrifies me.

* Heat distribution over the world.

Chennai is a tropical city and being a Chennaiite heat is no new phenomenon; I literally grew up with it. But three years in Deutschland were good enough to get used to the cold weather. Summer experience in 2007 in Chennai after two and a half year in Germany was pure hell on earth. I remember getting up in the night and crying (like a child), unable to beat the heat, worsened by the occasional power cuts. I am still horrified when I look back. I should say that it took me only less then 4 months to get used to the local weather, that is how quickly the mind conditions itself to the change.

* Scanty shades provided by the few trees in Chennai, an Oasis!

I had this super-chance to step out in the summer sun-shower couple of days ago. I could see a lot of people with umbrellas to escape the direct sun. So many of them as if it were raining. May be it was raining, raining-heat. Well May and June yet to be, phew now this thought daunts me to hell.

Writing about summer in Chennai, I am wondering what the very many things that characterize the old and the modern Chennai are, except for the humidity, the baking heat and all the other horrors that go along with them.

Summer holidays are so typical of the season, used to relish them as a child. Of course such long break is a luxurious thought now, now that I belong to the working fraternity. However can never forget the ones I enjoyed during my school days. Ever hot, oops, ever-green memories (slip of tongue, for good)!

Summer is the time for cotton; every thing that is cotton and light is in. Many designers get geared up to show case their summer collection. Wear up your cotton, and those big goggles, get colorful….

* Mangoes, Mangoes!!!!

Let us not forget our Mangoes. Mangoes, mangoes goes the man vending mangoes through the heated up streets. Piles of mangoes flood the bazaars; I still remember how the whole bazaar is intoxicated with the aroma of the sweet mangoes if there is a swell- outgrowth that season. I could see so many mango trees heavy with their fruits, flaunting away in a fruity-extravaganza. There was not one mango tree in the city that I could see which was not heavily seasoned with fruits.

* Thats one of the most delicious bed!

The lump some watermelons and the Sugar cane juice, and our very own tender coconuts. I have always stopped by these road side vendors and tried them and never fallen sick. Summer yummies.

Talking so much about fruiting and fruits, I have noticed that most trees pollinate and flower and fruit during summer. If you are a keen nature observer look for those greenish dust painting the road under the trees. It is easily noticeable in vicinity supporting a lot of trees. It would rather strike you so hard that you cant help but take note. You should try driving around Besant Nagar to witness the green grandeur. If there were many more trees all over Chennai this Phenomenon would be a very distinct and rather prominent and most definitely talked or written-about phenomenon. The fact that we have denied the city of its trees, the nature has in return denied us the lovely spectacle of the greenish display of its natural art in the streets. Sad indeed. Whatever we sow, so shall we reap! (Pudiya thathuvam 100031)

What about the Vathals (Chips), vadams, and the Maavadus (pickle) for the season. “Traditional mothers”(this species of womankind is slowly and almost becoming extinct now) make vathal and vadam in summer making use of the suns benevolence (Modern mothers don’t even make breakfast every morning these days, he he ). News: it is not only electricity (solar electricity) that could be made out of the killing sun, one can make yummy food too (perhaps we could call them solar food, and on eating them you would be on a solar diet, oh my gawd some body stop me)!

Thinking of summer and food, I am also reminded of the meaty, beery (subjective!), colorful and fun-filled barbeques in Emden during my Schule days. “A barbeque under the Chennai sun”- this as of now, is just a thought, never ventured though. I could imagine: it would be all about barbequing and being barbequed, grilling and being grilled, heating and being heated, not to forget eating and being eaten by the sun.

* One cannot find a cartoon more relevant. Courtesy: The Times of India

One more very interesting or rather burning phenomenon of the summer is what I would call the baking-car phenomenon. Let us imagine that you have a plan to do some shopping on a hot summer day (aasai yaara vitudhu). And you have planned it smartly by choosing to shop in one of those air-conditioned malls to escape the heat. (Nowadays almost all the shopping places are air conditioned). You drive to the mall and you park your car, then you get into those shops, enjoy or suffer the shopping consequences (this is subjective too, depending upon you are a man or a woman or both or whatever….he he). Once you are religiously done with the shopping rituals, you go back to your car to head home or wherever. The moment you get into the car (which is also air conditioned) you hasten to switch on the A\c. Because the car is now pre-heated to the right condition to cookie-you-up, thanks to the constant shower of sunshine on the car at the park place. Those few initial moments after getting into the car feels like sitting in a state-of-the-art oven, until the A\c in the car start to take effect (which is definitely a good 10 mins time or even more….)

Empty streets in the noon, this is something very common in the peak summer. The time between 10.30 am and 4 pm, one would barely notice people in the streets. Like all of a sudden all the people have become nocturnal (well I have discussed enough about nocturnal animals in my other blog “An Ocassional Insomniac”, so I shall spare the topic now). The streets are so empty like it is some kind of spell( Try : Expecto Empty-Streetonam!!! He he….oops dint work…may be you should try it with your wand, not my fault!!!). Caution: this spell of empty-street does'nt work after 4 pm. The one good news in Chennai, unlike in europe, the sun goes down in Chennai around 6 o clock in the evening anyways.When the sun becomes less severe people of Chennai dare to come out of their hide outs. One could also witness the many beaches of Chennai swell with crowd during summer. To an extent that sometime you are forced to leave the beach just because you couldn’t find a parking place (courtesy: personal experience).

One could also notice that most regions in India celebrate their respective beginning-of-the- year during the month of April. People of the olden days were glad to welcome the returning sun, I guess. Tamil New Year, Ugadi, Onam etc falls in Summer. Summer Celebrations!!!!

Oh, so much about summer, and what else, humidity, sweat, heat, ice creams, cool drinks etcetera, are common to summer in any city. And the horrifying thing is that May and June are still due, and not to forget the Agni Nakshatram, time for some prayers and may be some Amritha Varshini too!

However, there is one community in Chennai that remains unbeaten by and unshaken. These people are always victorious against the sun and never ever have been conquered. Any guesses??? Yes I am writing about the people of Chennai who are in love. Under love's aegis these souls remain undisturbed and invincible. You would see good number of them cuddling each other in hot Marina sands at 42 degree Celsius, not only Marina for that matter, any corner of the street goes un-spared. Seems like all the laws of heat (not the joules laws of heat, noooooo!!!) are rendered “invalid” by these people. So, I guess, one just has to fall in Love, the best way to beat the heat. You never have to follow the summer rules, the summer tips and all the other nonsense, no umbrellas, no sunscreens, no coolers.Nothing, he he. Love makes one summer-proof, I believe. And this is perhaps what one would call " finishing a hot topic on a cool note"! YESSS!!!