Surviving the Indian Summer
In making my decision to come to India for a year, one of the major things that I considered was climate, and the summer in particular. Having lived in the country for 11 months previously, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect, and based on that experience, I knew I didn’t want to spend any more time than necessary in the country during the summer. Even now I remember the day we left India last time (June 2nd it was), driving from Dehradun to Delhi in a beat-up old Ambassador taxi (at the time Ambassador was synonymous with car, as there weren’t any other kinds) in the 45ËšC heat. It was so hot that during the 7 hour journey, we kept all the windows firmly closed as the incoming breeze felt like a blast-furnace and it was in fact cooler to re-breathe our own hot, humid breath. Needless to say, it was not a pleasant experience, and wasn’t something I wanted to repeat. One of the major reasons I haven’t been back to India until now is that up until now, summer (school/university vacation) was the only free time I had, and I knew that it was not the time I wanted to be in the country. However, with educational commitments now out of the way, I had complete freedom in choosing the start/end dates of my trip. By starting in October, I avoided the Indian summer (instead spending it working in the Arctic, making money and having an awesome time) of 2005, and figured that by the time summer 2006 rolled around, I would be at least somewhat acclimatized to India and better able to bear the summer, and that the adaptation process would be easier if I was able to live through the natural, gradual build-up of the heat, rather than suddenly parachuting into Delhi in June like we did last time. It’s like trying to cook a frog (an analogy I remember from from “The Story of B” – read it if you haven’t), if you drop the frog directly into boiling water it will feel the heat and jump out, but if you put it in cold water and slowly bring it up to a boil, the frog won’t notice until it’s too late. Don’t worry, the analogy only (hopefully!) works so far (I don’t want to get fried/boiled here, though given the possible temperature range, I guess I have to consider it…).
So far things have been going well, the October weather in Delhi when I arrived was warmer than I would have liked, but soon enough I was up in Mussoorie and back in reasonable temperatures. November was nice (days warm, nights cool) and December nights in Mussoorie were actually cold. However, before it got too bad I was off on my Western Adventure and back down into the plains/desert where it was again warm days and cool nights. Coming back to Dehradun in January and then out into the Himalaya, I got to experience a bit more cold weather, but nothing I wasn’t accustomed/prepared for. February was quite similar, a little warmer but still nice (hiking in the mountains and not sweating too much), but by March things started warming up. Coming back to Dehradun for reporting in early March, the weather got really ugly – blazing sunshine and burning heat. Walking the 1km flat road from the guesthouse to the office (and visa-versa) became a real endurance test and finding the energy/motivation to get up after lunch and go back to work was a real challenge. At this point I started to get a little scared about summer, here in India the holiday of Holi marks the cultural start of summer (and usually the climate agrees) so I was feeling the heat even before it really started. A two week tour in the mountains helped cool me off (though even there things were warming up, not uncomfortable, but not too far off) and then it was off to Thailand. The weather there was even hotter (and importantly humid making a bad combination), but since I spent most of my time near the ocean (or in the air-conditioned malls/skytrain of Bangkok), it wasn’t too bad, and in the end, I think it really helped me get used to the heat so that when I came back to India at the beginning of April, the weather here didn’t feel so bad any more. I survived two weeks in Dehradun without too much trouble (seemed like there was a bit of a cool spell that helped), and then it was out into the mountains for May – summer at its peak. I’m now 2/3rds of the way through May, and here in the mountains, am in the middle of a struggle to survive the Indian summer. In typical Indian style I tried to have as few expectations as possible, but even still this country has managed to completely blow me away.
Whenever I thought of summer in India, I never expected that the challenge would not be surviving the bone-dry heat – but surviving the rain and the cold. However, that’s what’s happened. Right from the beginning of this trip (April 21st), there has been rain at least every other day straight up until today. Most of the rain has come in the form of evening thunderstorms, the sun effectively setting around 5pm (behind the impenetrable blackness of the thunderclouds) and cold rain falling for at least an hour, buffeted around by strong cold winds making everything cold and wet. As if that isn’t enough, I’ve been treated to 2 hail storms in the last week (May 14th and today) and these aren’t little storms either… Something really strange is going on with the weather here, and it’s not just me thinking it, my teammates and all the local villagers are commenting on how they’ve never had a “summer” like this. It’s been so wet lately that we’ve all started saying that summer’s come and gone, and that what we’re now experiencing is the start of the monsoon (not due to start until at least the beginning of July here). As if trying to prove us right, the weather has brought daily rain for the past 5 days, yesterday rained for 2 hours in the morning (all the other rain has been in the evening after a hot/dry start to the day) and this morning though it was hot and sunny, the humidity could be felt in each breath, and I was panting well before usual as we walked out to Makhet for our day of micro-planning exercises there.
Despite what the weather shows and what we say, I know that this is not the real monsoon which sweeps across the entire country from south-east to north-west every June/July. These storms are coming down out of the Himalaya, moving in from Tibet, and the newspapers are reporting that Delhi and the rest of the “Ganges Plains” are experiencing terrifying heat waves just like every other year. Even here in the mountains, the cities/towns down at lower elevation in the valleys along the major rivers – especially ones closer to the plains – are hot and disgusting, as I can attest to based on my trips to Tilwarda (2) and Rudraprayag (1). Bedari even said that he heard a report of someone dying in Srinagar (the one halfway between here and Rishikesh, not to be confused with the famous one in Kashmir) due to heat-stroke. So while it may be cold and wet here, I’m not really complaining, and certainly wouldn’t want to trade places with anyone from the valleys/plains. In fact, the cold/wet combo lately has made me feel right at home reminding me of good old Nova Scotia where April is always cold, drizzly and foggy, while May showers bring June flowers. So while I may be 14,000+km away from home, and 1200m higher than home, it just feels like another spring to me. I’m planning on heading up to (dry, cool) Ladakh during July & August this summer, thus missing the worst of the monsoon, and so it seems like the weather gods have decided that I’m not allowed to be in India without experiencing my share of rain and have brought me a mini-monsoon of my own now. It’s all good though, having my monsoon now means I get to miss the summer, and I’m not sad about that.
However, all the cold/wet lately has posed a bit of a problem because when I packed for this trip, I wasn’t expecting anything like this. I’ve been trying to minimize the amount of stuff I carry around all the time (though my backpack is huge and can fit everything I would ever want to bring, it does get heavy and bulky when full), and so I didn’t pack for all seasons. For example, I left my rainjacket back in Dehradun (who would have thought I’d need a rainjacket in India in April/May), and I also left my sleeping bag (in Dehradun I was sleeping with just a sheet, and though I expected it to be slightly cooler here, I figured that I’d be fine with just the extra (thin) blanket that I knew Sunil had in Mayali) and nearly all my winter clothes (thankfully I did pack one fleece). I’ve always liked the cold (and as I say, would much rather be cold than hot) so it hasn’t been too bad, but looking back, I would have been significantly more comfortable if I’d brought my sleeping bag and a few more sweaters (maybe even a winter hat). There have been some nights recently where I’ve had to wear my long-sleeve shirt to bed so I don’t freeze at night (the blanket really just doesn’t cut it), and even then I still wake up cold with my blanket completely wrapped around me. As for the rainjacket, it hasn’t been as big an issue since most of the rain has been in the evening, but lately we’ve been staying late in Makhet (people don’t arrive for meetings before 2 it seems, so inevitably we’ve been leaving around 5:30 or 6:00) and so have been caught in the the rain a few times. Yesterday I finally broke down and bought an umbrella, and though I generally dislike using them, it has come in handy lately. In the morning (generally hot and sunny) it gets used as a parasol, and then when the evening thunderstorm comes, it serves its normal purpose and keeps me (mostly) dry.
To sum it up, this hasn’t been the summer I expected. Goes to show that a) climate change is happening – big time, and b) as I’ve said before, India always defies expectations.
This is the online home of one Shane Warner, my place to attempt to tell some of my stories, as well as just spout off whatever comes to mind.
