The Torrid Zone

It has become unbearable. Already. The temperature has been varying between 35 to 39 this past week. And April has only just begun. I look up the exact location of Kolkata on Wikipedia {don't want to do the daab on taal gach trick again} and find that we miss both the tropics Cancer and Capricorn and though we miss Equator as well, we are closer to it than the tropics. However, {aha} we are in what is called the Torrid Zone. Sounds ...umm.. interesting? Well actually that means it is the hottest part of the earth.

The high levels of pollution {my favorite kolkata rant}, combined with high humidity means by the end of the day, we are covered {would go so far as to say, we are actually weighed down by it} a thick layer of grime.

And yet, "sultry tropics" would mean people lounging around in huge cane chairs under slow ceiling fans drinking some thing cool in a tall glass. Must be all those Raj stories. How silly to think romantically of the tropics while sweating it out, with no respite in sight? Afterall, its onlyApril, with May, June, July, August, September, October ahead and the Kolkata summer might stretch into perhaps even November.

For now, I sit back and imagine the coolness this morning, in Gurgaon where there was a a hail storm, and how V must have rushed to get her camera to take the photo and email it to me:

Looks like a fish, doesn't it?