Circles

I thought I’d massage my arid scalp with some coconut oil today. Absentmindedly I picked up the blue bottle and headed for the microwave. Why? Because for me, the bottle of coconut oil was still living frozen in the winters, when I’d last used it. Suddenly I the liquid moving inside and for good reason; I was just wearing shorts, why would the oil be frozen. Oh God! I’m so baffled at the things I do sometimes. Then I went to the kitchen for some midnight snacking. I was confused about whether I was hungry or thirsty. Instead of just drinking water and finding out, I set out to fix some snacks which comprised of four slices of bread with butter, a substantial quantity of dal, stir fried in butter till dry, and an egg white dropped on the dry dal! You might be wondering what kind of a dish that’d make and the answer is “Filling”. As I ate it I could easily discern the filling combination of the buttery dal from the tender egg pieces. The butter lying on the table first turned soft and then gooey. Alarmed, I rushed in the fridge before it melted and flowed out on the table. Suddenly my eyes caught one of the newspaper headlines, Rain brings down minimum temperature (TNS). “Bloody hell when did that happen. Is bad weather just following me?” I thought as I wiped the sweat off my brow. I twisted my head to read it again clearly and yes, it was Chandigarh news.
Then I shifted my vision some more to the right and saw the date February 24, 2010. “Ah so much for respite”, I thought.
I picked it up and read on, it and I quote
“…winter is far from over.”
“People will experience a cold spell again. The Tuesday morning rain will bring back the chill soon.”
“The weathermen have predicted partly cloudy sky with a possibility of thundery development in the next 24 hours in the city.”
I don’t clearly remember what I was doing on 24th February but 10 days earlier on the 14th, I attended Dog Show with my girlfriend and her friend, and I remember that it was quite hot in the morning. Ten days hence must’ve been hot alright. What bliss must this news have brought to people back then.
The heat is growing unbearable and I wonder what hard times lay ahead; electricity cuts, water shortage, the discomfort of commuting on a two wheeler in an even hotter city will soon follow. It’s difficult to place these roads as the same ones on which I traveled wearing a warm jacket and gloves and still feeling cold. I can just think of them as blast furnaces on which I travel alone.
“…People will experience a cold spell again…” what prophesy. What a paradox that I experience it to such a degree in this heat. The winters were so warm and the summer is so frozen in spite of itself. I know there will be respite like there’s always been; within the gamut of the choices I can make. My truth was different then from what it is now but the real truth is that I’m writing so much these days and it all comes down to the same thing.