And here we are again! The heat wave that seems to have taken over what little pretense of Spring there ought to have been is here with its hot and cool breezes with dust. Oh, yeah! You may or may not be able to feel the breeze touch your pores but dust will be everywhere. It is of small condolence that that dusty breeze may sometimes lead to rain – but still, there will be dust! And heat! And the breeze. And the dust!
So, basically, the time of multiple showers (as in having them) a day, chilled strong ice tea, sherbet (predominantly falsay), lemonade (preferred more and more with zest and salt than with sugar), lassi and basically all forms of chilled drinks one can drown oneself in – and last but not least, the frequent cursing of the government’s insistence on deliberate power shortage (when did that ever stop, one may argue, since Nawaz Sharif and family sat down their huge asses on the “throne” hogging everything to himself and his every greedy family) has come!
And here we are again! Some may blame the global warming, which, let us be honest, is true, but really is a part of the cycle of the earth since it was created and will go on in various forms no matter what we do till kingdom come. That is not to say, of course, that we are not responsible for making it faster or more severe due to our narcissistic actions. Some may blame the corruption around us and they would not be wrong either. Some may blame the winds coming from the wrong side creating more heat than normal – the point is, whatever it is, it is here and if we are lucky and this global warming is still at work, then we may continue to have the week’s heat wave accompanied by heavy rain storms to cool things down (at least that is what has been happening for the past decade now, so you better perk up!).
In a country like ours where we have cities that go up to 50-60 degrees (and that is not Celsius) and the average heat is 40-42, and we manage to live to tell about it save a few casualties – believe me when I tell you it is a darned sight better than people vomiting and dying at 32 degrees in Europe which to us here is considered the most perfect temperature (and the logic here is that Europe being at a high altitude, even 30 degrees of heat means the most horrifically pricking heat of the sun that is so irritatingly stinging that you want to go nude)…although the Karachiites may beg to differ as they seem to suffer from the same peril and their reason is that they are by the sea! Same difference one may argue. High altitude, bordering with the sea…tomato, tomato!
All in all, if only at least in one of the many showers I take in a day I get to have the cold water penetrate my pores, I can last a whole day without cursing the Sharif brothers (although, that may really be too much to ask for)- talk about God testing us with the kind of people He saddles us with! And it is proving more and more difficult to pass this test of patience, isn’t it? It is not like before, is it? Now even Ramadan, which was a month that really forced us to be on our best behaviour, is not helping us with the government making things more difficult and the heat beating down and all tests just go to hell!
This year is going to be heavy, isn’t it? And this time we have got Trump, too, to fathom! Or, rather the Americans will share our agony of leadership – we may have been saddled with Sharif and his family, but they are going to be saddled with Trump! (Wonder which is worse?) Talk about tests! And this time the fruits and the drinks and the flowers may not be enough to help us…
nagwamalik 