Indian Summer, the real deal

After a mild March summer has come to India with a vengeance. We are experiencing daily temperatures with highs at around 95 degrees and lows sometimes at around 78 degrees. Since Sunday we have been roasting and there is no relief in sight. Aside from the heat there are a few other annoyances that are ushered in with the warm weather; more frequent power outages due to increased energy consumption that comes when all of the business crank up their air-conditioning. I don't personally know of any home that has air-conditioning here in Bangalore so I assume that it is the businesses that are hogging all of the energy during the summer months. Water shortages and rationing also accompany the summer months. We try to conserve during the hot months, but I have to take a shower in the evening so that I can cool off enough to sleep and again in the morning to wash away the sweaty consequences of trying to sleep when it is so hot out. Our apartment get particularly hot since we live on the top floor of the house and the roof bakes all day and the heat very nicely gets transferred to our apartment. In the evening it is easily several degrees cooler outside of the apartment than inside. Well, why not throw open the doors and windows and let some of that cool air in, you might ask? Mosquitoes are a problem at all times of the year but are particularly bad during the summer months. As it is I often get bitten badly at night when I have kicked off the covers on the bed, and that is with the doors and windows closed and/or mosquito netted. The mosquitoes are not the only creatures that make their way inside during the summer months, the ubiquitous ants multiply in number and seemingly take over the kitchen and the cockroaches scuttle around in the bathroom (at least until Mira or Chaya finds them, and then they are nicely eliminated). Speaking of Mira and Chaya, the hot days have made them ornery and desperate to run outside in the cool hours of the morning and evening, leaving Eric and I to chase them all over the rooftop before finally returning them to the safety of our steaming apartment. Mira is so annoyed at it all that she has taken to urinating on our bed, and did so last night with us in it! Anyone want a cat?

This year though more than last, I have decided to also try to partake in the positives that come with summer. So far I have only come up with one positive, mangoes are ripening all over India and are now available so for dessert last night I had my first 2 of the season. Delicious! I will try to think of other good aspects of the summer but until I come up with any more I will be satisfied with gorging myself on the bounty of the season.