Ready for summer travel?

Ready for summer travel?

All those who hate winter, are you happy with this insanely hot summer now? The mercury has been wiggling between 45- 49 degrees Celsius in the plains of India and Pakistan, say all newsreports.

(The weather gods have gone kind of sweet this morning with lower temperatures and a breeze, but just wait till they realise what their purpose in life is and return with greater fury.)

According to The Guardian temperatures have repeatedly hit almost 50C (122F) in Balochistan while Jacobabad, a city in Sindh province of Pakistan, hit 49C last Saturday.  If you think you want competition with the neighbours in that field, please note that our own national capital recorded 49 degrees last week.

The sudden and early heat wave has caused damage to the wheat, vegetable and fruit crops, and put increased pressure on power and water supplies. We are already looking at the results!

But my word attack is not about this brutal heat wave.

I am looking at crowds carrying, lugging, pulling or wheeling their suitcases and bags to destinations outside their hometowns for ‘vacations’ to enjoy better weather.

Most of us seem to be going or planning to go somewhere. These people are dreaming of stressfree time away from the daily rigmarole, in cooler climes with great food, meeting friends or relatives and looking for relaxation, adventure, maybe romance as well- no work, all play.

Our summer is not like what people in Europe and the Americas put up pictures of. Their balmy weather dare not challenge our crazy temperatures, so let us forget the spaghetti straps, the teeny weeny shorts, the show of muscles and think of inventing something like air-conditoned body suits to escape the heat. And there is no such thing as a summer tan in the sub-continent, it is pure and simple roasted skin.

Coorg or Canada, Bheemtaal or Basel, my question is we, human beings are not cold-blooded. Then why do we, like the reptiles, get out in the warm weather only to curse the heat and rush back inside looking for comfort of cool places, like them?

Let me put a huge spoiler alert here now. No, I am not asking you to worry about the environmental impact of planes, trains or cars.

Before you book your tickets, think about the day-to-day challenges you might face in the heat during the trip- all the paperwork, travel and medical insurance, different rules for testing, vaccines and quarantines flight and train delays, cancellations, refunds and change of dates. Then you also have to think of food, physical activity, dealing with crowds or disturbed sleep pattern. You might also take note of the fact that holidays mean more food and alcohol intake , exposure to germs and possibly sickness, not to forget all the packing and unpacking and the misery of going back to work and old routine.

Going out of India? Is your visa ready? Keep some time margin for jet lag too. According to bbc.com,  Heathrow has warned of ‘congestion in check-in areas at peak times’ and said it was ‘working closely with airlines and ground handlers to make sure this increase in demand can be met while keeping passengers safe’.

Covid-19 destroyed the aviation industry and airlines shed their staff to make up the losses. Now with resurgence of travel, they have difficulty coping.

CNN's aviation correspondent Pete Muntean reports , “We're seeing mass cancelations again, and airlines are reducing schedules. Fares are through the roof, and people like to talk about [the price of] oil but that's not why. The problem is we have more people wanting to fly than we have seats,"

A friend told me for the skyrocketing price of car rentals due to hike in demand and rising fuel prices, you could easily buy a car.

Back home nearly 600 trains have been cancelled to facilitate the carriage of coal to power plants to deal with the power shortage.

It is not that we have never travelled in summer earlier. We all get nostalgic about train (even in non-AC ones) journeys or visits to grandparents’ house during summer vacation. Armed with tiered tiffin boxes full of food, surahis for cool water and lots of comic books, we fought to sleep on the upper berths. Meeting the whole jing bang of close and distant cousins and gorging on food, ooh-aahing over gifts and doing whatever we could not under our own parents’ hawk eye, was what summer holidays meant.

But this year is different. Housebound by the lockdowns and fear induced by Covid-19, we are finally coming out. Restrictions on travel have eased, incidence of infection is down, most of us are fully vaccinated, maybe boosted too, and going crazy parotting let us go on a vacation. This is the year to make up for the time we missed out on the holidays in the last two years and to meet up friends and relatives. But the issue is the heat.

And aren’t you coming back after that break to the same temperatures?

Another question, why are people getting married in this heat? Dressing up is a torture. Merely looking at women dressed in shiny embellished sarees with their hair open and men in silky band-galla kurtas gives me urticaria.

The heat has crushed the diehard romantic in me. Even the ads of jewellery and body lotions showing loving couples coming close and closer make me long for the old Liril ad.

I sometimes wonder how did we have this kind of population explosion when for most part of the year one doesn’t want any living being within a few feet?

When I was in school it was kind of infradig to say you stayed at home during summer holidays. Now I am older and over what others think of my decisions, (well, to a large degree), so my staycation is at home.

Finish the housework, clean up, change into comfy clothes, turn on the air conditioner and pick up a book, needlework, ring up friends.

A better idea is to send the kids and your spouse somewhere and stay at home in your worn out soft nightgown or shorts and a thin collarless tee, staying alive on watermelons, mangoes, lassi, buttermilk, aam ka panna (sweet tangy drink made from raw mangoes) and ice cream! Just one friendly suggestion though- buy some pretty gifts for people the tourists in the family are going to meet and lots of currency notes for tipping, so that their hosts do not send them back sooner, decimating your own vacation.

I’ve decided I am not going for the three weddings I have been invited to. I’ll wait for the sun to get over its frenzy, and travel anywhere when the temperature and also the relative humidity percentage drop to a comfortable level.

Still if your desire to travel wins this battle, and you decide on a short or long break in a hotel, villa, homestay, national or amusement park, camping site, or a cruise, go ahead! Come back and share all your misfortunes, so that I have this sadistic pleasure of saying I warned you, my friend!

                                                                                              - Anupama S Mani