Come get roasted!

   “Hurray! Summer is here!” the dust storm announced last week.

I surfed to find out what my friends around the world are up to. The sporty ones are playing games, the foodies trying new recipes, and the fashionable after the fads of the season. Lucky people… I envy! But we, the desert people, have a different story to tell.

Here’s a challenge for you – come down to this part of the world at this time of the year, if you dare!      

  (On the way, don’t let those showy Bougainvillea flowers mislead you. They are kind of rebels, pretending to be cool with their shameless paper smiles. What right do they have to be called ‘flowers’?)

Keep this in mind – I won’t let you have a cool time within the air-conditioned rooms. Because you MUST be where the real Summer has been unleashed on:

* the streets where the laymen drudge,

* the growing buildings where the less privileged/deprived expats work their fingers to the bone, just a few feet below the bloody sun,

* the stuffed classrooms and the tin-roofed playgrounds, where the commoners teach, work, study and play….

(Sorry, I can’t enlighten you on the summer life in the other parts of the desert as I am not so familiar with it. But I guess it must be much worse.)

No, no, that is not enough to get the heat across. What about a dash of lava on my post? Step back!

Into some bitter realities at least a few of the schools have to face during summers:

1. Summer schedule – it’s awesome! The glad news is that one should be up by 4.30 (usually this is time I will be chased by a lion in the land of Nod, or stupefied by an exam paper I am not prepared for.) to get into the school bus by 5.30 and reach the school by 5.55 a.m. Don’t worry, the nasty, insomniac Sun will already have lit up the whole city.
2. As the mercury rises steeply on certain days we will have to turn off our AC’s to keep those in the class rooms running. (We do it without grumbling – call it dedication, sacrifice or such equally noble, dignified terms.) That means others who are not in the class rooms most of the time, including me, will be left with a few options. They can get 1. melted down, 2. roasted, 3. boiled, 4. simply evaporated. That depends on the stuff they are made of. I think I am wax – I am melting.
3. After the first two or three hours of the confrontation with the heat, we will start getting hallucinations and see mirages. One may feel like a soaring hot air balloon, then gradually floating… It’s a wonderful sensation.
4. You may be wondering how we cope with such hostile weather conditions. Thanks for the concern, but it’s just a matter of two-three days, after which …… we will get used to it. Invention’s mother (you know, Ms. Necessity) is a pretty good teacher. We have become wise enough to realize it will feel better with the computers and lights turned off – like ‘from the burning fire into the frying pan’. Ah, that’s a different version of the same experience. Just for a change.
5. Advantages? Yes, I have ferreted out one. We can completely forget about the loo – our bladders will usually be empty, as the skin might have become too leaky to hold any fluids in. We only need to sponge up the sweat from the exposed parts of our body. So keep boxes and boxes of tissue papers handy.
6. We have eked out one more advantage. Even in the school compound we usually wear the abaya, the full length black robe. But since last week we have thrown them away, because the heat is that unbearable! Now most of them have taken out their collections from the last vacation. Blessing in disguise. Lewd eyes go to hell.

I am sure this won’t scare you away and you will definitely include this ‘hot’ spot in your itinerary. On the other hand, if your summer schedule has already been fixed, in your prayers request Him to cut our summer short. And for your kind information, we have decided to stay back here for the summer vacation as part of our declaring solidarity with the local community in their misery. (Don’t be amiss that it has something to do with the skyrocketing airfares.)