Summer Rains

I'm beginning to think that working at a Swedish company rubbed off a few typical Swedish traits...I seem to be posting about the weather a lot more than anything else. To explain to the uninitiated, Swedes are of the habit of talking of the weather to everyone! It is one of their favourite topics of conversation, especially in the summer :)

Well, everything said and done, the weather affects your daily life like no other. If it be hot, it brings with it exhaustion, all that sweating and huge electricity bills; If it be cold, you don't want to make the effort of getting out the comforter or any further than the heater's radius; If it rains, the sogginess, the slush and the having stay at home; the Snow I'm sure has its downsides although unfamiliar to me...

Reiterating what I started, the weather has such an ability to dictate habits, livelihood, food, comforts and survival measures as no other single entity in nature apart from the geographical location of one. In an urban setting, the weather becomes easier to manage- assured electricity most of the time, controlled temperature conditions in malls, offices and homes and a largely sedentary lifestyle wherein most things can be done at the click of a button. Whereas in the rural Indian setting, the harshness of the weather coupled with the rural power supply, or lack of, makes life a stark one.

It has been two weeks since we've set up shop here in Pallathur. Pallathur would probably qualify on as tier IV or tier V town. A small village with hardly a population of 500 and houses centuries old; dusty roads, erratic electricity. One Browsing center. One main road that runs for a length of about 200-300 m. Being a town so small, the guys who run the Electricity board of course give it that kind of importance...We are subject to power cuts at the drop of a hat. It could be an all-night er and then again continue through the day. It wouldn't seem so bad if wasn't for it being summer. Summer and with such vengeance! Every evening though, clouds and winds come to pay a visit but rarely bringing along any rains although thunder and lighting aplenty. And for respite of course, I've been wishing it would rain...Now, Apart from it being summer, it also the wedding season; so rains tend to throw plans off track and mess things up...

So there's the catch 22, its a sweltering summer and rains would help. But there are so many weddings (including mine!) that rains, if anything more than the drizzling kind, would totally throw plans haywire!! So...here's to another month of scorcing heat and power cuts!