Like most men, I dread heat. Once on an exceptionally hot day, I had to remain out of doors on business. I started at eight in the morning, when the heat was somewhat bearable. I thought I would finish whatever I had to do before it got unbearably hot. But alas! I had not taken into account the hurdle that was to come before me. Every step threw me behind schedule. At noon, worn out and miserable, I still found myself on the road.
My clothes got wet with perspiration due to excessive heat and I had to drink water like a fish.
I thought to refresh myself with some cold drink. I entered a restaurant. I demanded a cold drink and the bearers there must have taken me for a mad man as they watched me consume some four or five glasses of it. You cannot imagine how much at ease I felt inside that air-conditioned restaurant. I almost thought of sitting down there for the rest of the day, but I had to move out to finish my work for the day.
Once on the road, for the first time in the day, I saw a person who was in a greater trouble than myself and who looked more uneasy than me. He was a bald-headed middle-aged man. As he went along I saw to my horror that he went with a bundle on his head. I cannot say whether he actually went mad by the time he reached home. It made me almost nervous when I realised that my condition was not much better. The next thing I did was to take a bus to return home.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
That day I spent in hell. Next day I read in the newspaper that a man had died due to heat. Such was the intensity of summer.