COLD WAVE

I have just come inside after enjoying a decent spell of sunshine, only thrice to be precise in the last 25 or so days, and I am in a good mood and chewing Shahi supari which Mateen mamu has brought for me from Karachi. Not only is it tasty it also provides a much needed warmth to my body in this painfully cold weather. Thanks to the ferocious cold wave which has taken the entire North India in it’s vice like grip many people including me are suffering from cold and Charles Dickens in his inimitable style beautifully describes what we are going through, “I am this moment deaf in the ears, hoarse in the throat, red in the nose , green in the gills, damp in the eyes, twitchy in the joints and fractious in temper”. There have been intense cold waves in the past, each lasting not more than 20 days as far as I can remember, but the present one has been tormenting us for nearly a month and yet shows no sign of subsiding, it,s intensity rising with every passing day. The days are dreary, mostly cloudy and depressing , nights are dull and bone chillingly cold . Getting out of the bed when you are covered In blankets or quilts is quiet a feat and that’s why I do not go to bed till late night, no matter how great the temptation to do so during the day.

The absence of sunshine for nearly a month has made me sympathise with the English for their desperate craving for it. As always the predictions of the meteorological department are boomeranging . It’s latest forecasts says that the prevailing weather conditions will improve within the next 24 hours and despite being aware that nothing of this sort will happen I am hoping for a better tomorrow. After all umeed pe duniya qayam hai.