India Hot

With the temperatures rising this week, we reached the level of "India Hot". If you are an adoptive family with an Indian child, and you ever traveled to India between the months of March and September, then you understand the phrase "India Hot".

I arrived in Kerala, India on July 19th, 1997. I will forever recall the long and lost trip from the train station to Mother Theresa's orphanage (where by the way, my son did not live). As the autorickshaw driver pulled up in front of the orphanage and started putting my luggage on the freshly rained mud drive way, and I tried to convince him that this was not the place I was looking for, sweat drops began to form on the bridge of my nose, and from the hairline of my forehead. I was preoccupied with my now brand new dirty luggage, but there was a nagging thought I couldn't ignore. My glasses were sliding down my nose and barely hanging by the tip.

If there was anything I was going to learn in my first 24 hours in Kerala, the phrase "India Hot" would probably be one of the things that became evident to me.

Honestly, I couldn't even imagine the hell a civilization could live in on a daily basis. There were no airconditioners, just some very small and high powered ceiling fans which seemed to slice through the thick and firey air. Yes, I finally found my son's orphanage, hours later, but having already started sweating profusely, and beginning to lose my cool in the heat, my face began to turn bright red, the color of a beet more exactly, and I realized that I may be "India Hot" for a very long time. I was after all planning on staying in India for 4 - 6 months. As soon as Ravi was presented to me (at the correct orphanage) I could see him staring at me curiously. I knew it had to be the beet red skin on my body, which must have made him laugh at me, or giggle. Even though babies don't have such grand thoughts, I thought he may be wondering which planet I arrived from. He had not broken a sweat, or looked flush in the slightest of ways, nor had any of his caregivers. Everyone was powder dry, almost seemingly impossible for the present circumstances, but they were not at all uncomfortable. It must have been amusing to the entire staff to see such a sweaty and luminently red human. I'm sure they had seen fair skinned people before, but I thought for sure that none of them had prespired in public like I did.

This is the hot that has become known as "India Hot", and surprisingly it happens right here in my own home town every single summer. Us local folks have always thought, "this is the hottest summer of all", but now that I have grown into my fourties, I have realized that we have an India Hot too.

This past week we have been suffering from India Hot. The kids learn that this is how hot it was when I saw them for the first time in India, although Lakshmi's city of Kolkata was not nearly this hot. Most kids complain royaly, wishing they could escape the heat, like I do, but my kids have a calm and assuring understanding that for at least a couple of weeks every year, they too can live like they are in India.

I only wish that the monsoons were coming to our city. Unfortunately, it will just keep getting hotter and hotter till we melt like butter (we are way past the melting point right now I think).

The plants are sucking up the water I spray at them in the warm evenings, because the sun parches them to the point of India Hot too. I'll leave you with a few photos that help you understand India Hot. Be well, and stay hydrated.

Jyotsna