Beat the heat with good deeds

If people still believe that climate change is a hysterical doomsday warning, they had better wake up. What we in North India have experienced over the last few weeks in May is unprecedented. This kind of prolonged heat wave would normally come in June, just before the monsoon clouds and pre-monsoon showers came along. I wake up earlier and earlier to go for a morning walk but have almost given up trying to dodge the sun, which is scorching from the time it rises. 

Even more unbearable are the growing levels of intemperate rage that such heat brings in its wake. Harried young mothers trying to deal with boisterous children trapped inside small flats, drivers on the road trying to deal with rush-hour traffic, housewives arguing with vegetable and fruit vendors – all these are on a short fuse. However, my heart goes out to those who have no option but to work in the cruel heat of the midday sun — cycle rickshaw pullers, labourers straining to pull huge loads on their carts, construction workers on building sites — they must work or else go hungry to bed. 

So please be kind to those who are exposed to the worst of this heat: keep bowls of water for the birds who come to your garden with open beaks, seeking some drops of water; offer a cooling drink to delivery boys who have to wear a suffocating helmet that must surely cook their brains; your household helps who swelter in the kitchen and sweep and swab the house – be kind if they want to cut corners once in a while. Not for nothing do our religious calendars mark Nirjal Ekadesi (celebrated by Sikhs as Guru Arjan Das’ martyrdom), when all passers-by are offered sweet drinks in memory of the Guru who suffered for them. Ganga Dussera is also marked in this month for sharing cool drinks and sweets made with sugar and rose petals to soothe fevered brows. Yet not many even know of these festivals outside small regions, for we have now become globalized citizens of the world who know all about Mother’s Day (May 13) and such absurdities rather than these quaint days in our almanacs that were marked to celebrate humanity and compassion.

What I can recommend as a great way to pass those interminable summer afternoons is watching old Hindi film classics of the fifties and sixties. If nothing else, they had the best music and lyrics and although the plots seem to drag a bit or appear a trifle melodramatic today, there is a level of innocence and purity in those characters that has vanished perhaps never to return. The Navketan menu, with Vijay and Dev Anand, is designed to chase away the blues with lilting music by Sachin Deb Burman. Then there are the Raj Kapoor show-stoppers, with music by Shankar-Jaikishen and the evergreen Raj Kapoor-Nargis jodi. My personal favourites are the Guru Dutt films and I must have watched Sahib, Bibi, Ghulam at least 40 times so that I know the dialogues and the songs by heart. Of course, the Bimal Roy cult films are in a class by themselves, even if they are almost always tragic and haunt you with their tales of suffering or unrequited love. Nevertheless, no literate Indian can go through life without having seen films such as Do Beegha Zameen or Bandini. If you are so inclined, check out films by actors or actresses (Ashok Kumar, Balraj Sahni or Meena Kumari and Nutan starrers) and lose yourself in their portrayal of the characters they played on screen. 

Watching films on Amazon Prime or Netflix is now a rage across the world. While there is a lot to be said in praise of the kind of selection they offer (some terrific detective serials and thrillers from Europe), binge-watching films (or serials) has weaned away readers from reading books. Just as internet has taken away or replaced certain modes of communication (letter-writing for one), these new temptations are replacing books. My publisher friends have confessed to me that even die-hard readers of fiction have fallen prey to this new addiction. I love both so for me the solution is watch Netflix only when you have nothing interesting to read. Sadly, some of my favourite people have given up on trying to keep up with their reading and walk around with square eyes (from staring for too long at small screens). Book sales are dropping to alarming levels and retail trade (already hit by Amazon and Flipkart) is struggling to stay afloat. It is sad to see bookshop after bookshop (some with long and celebrated histories) closing down to make way for another shoe emporium or clothes shop. Let us hope that those that survive will still be around after this generation of readers passes on.

The latest Royal Wedding was an event that reached out to an audience across ages, regions and ideologies. Thousands of words have been written on Prince Charles leading his daughter-in-law to the altar; to the horror on many royal faces as a crazy evangelist took the pulpit to preach about the power of ‘lurve’ to an audience that takes pride in hiding it from public view. All the world loves a lover and millions can’t have enough of royal families. Portents for India in 2019?