Sunday, May 09, 2010

April Is The Cruellest Month

"April is the cruellest month" ... I can imagine the line from T.S. Eliot going through my sister-in-law Peg's head, even if not in the same spirit as the poem was meant. April is not quite the right time for people from cooler regions to visit Bombay - not this year anyway. So the poor thing suffered her way through the two weeks which she and my brother Vishnu spent with us, with some relief in between (I hope!) in the form of a cool breeze from the sea now and then and of course ... mangoes. The king as I keep referring to our very own "Alphonso".

But April this year does indeed seem to be crueller than most years. Hot, sticky, perfect weather to sleep away the summer. Will May be worse? What about the water shortage? How will the government deal with the problem? No doubt by building new flyovers, extending the sea link, putting up a few more statues (some in the sea, perhaps?) and changing the names of several public parks, roads and other facilities.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I think that qualifying our latest visit as "cruel" is not too far off the mark, but not all of it was cruel. The sea breeze. Mangoes. Entertaining geckoes at Rewa. Visiting with friends and family. And hey, I learned a lot from that little spell of heat exhaustion! Glad it's a bit cooler for you there now.

Peg