India is HOT!!!

No, not in the sense of booming...India is literally Hot...very very Hot...I don't think I have ever been so Hot in my life! And given the fact that we lived in Sudan on the edge of the Sahara when I was a child, that says something!

Yesterday it was 40ºC in the shade and 48ºC in the sun...even the wind feels hot, scorching, like you are sitting in an oven. Inside we have a permanent temperature of 36ºC and the airco's (of which we can only run two at the time since the wiring of the house will not allow for more) cannot keep up...the coolest we manage to get our bedroom is 22ºC (with the airco set on 17!).

Our clothes feel as if they have just been ironed, the marble -which is everywhere in the house- feels warm and the floor feels as if we have a permanent underfloor heating on, set on "Korean temperature in the winter" (app 34ºC). The water from the coldwater tap is so hot that we cannot use it (my thermometer stops at 42º and it was way beyond that), the water from the boilers -which have now been switched off- have a bearable 36ºC, the outside temperature. My brain has switched off...overheated. I can only sit very quietly, walking to the fridge for a cool drink once in a while, and then returning to my seat in front of the airco. I feel deeply for all those people who live in the streets, with no access to cooling, powercuts of hours in a row and no generator, and sometimes even without access to water! India still has a long way to go before it is truly booming on all levels of society!

Mr. Gill tells me that we can expect this temparature for 40 days, and then the monsoon will come - I am starting to understand why everybody takes their annual leave around this time if they can be missed. Next year, I am planning a vacation to Antartica in June....