Eye of the Storm

Over the last three weeks I have witnessed every kind of weather - snow storms on arrival in Manchester; wind and rain in Yorkshire; bearable sunshine in Spain; torrential rain in Spain (NOT on the plain....); sunny mild weather in London; and finally searing heat in Bangalore. Last night, we added another weather phenomenon to the list: CYCLONE! I kid you not, we were hit by the edge of whirling Cyclone Nargis. It began with a little lightning, some thunder, then torrential rain which left parts of the city under 2.5 feet of water, but the worst was the wind which sent the rain every which way, most of it, it seemed, into every room of our apartment. Yes, the window sealants are THAT good here... One room (a little less well sealed than the rest) was full of hailstones by the time I got to it, and I seriously felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz as things were whirling around outside. The most shattering effect? It knocked out our satellite signal TV for the last 10 minutes of my nightly fix of Seinfeld.

It all reminded me of my favourite email of the year, following the much heralded 'minor' earthquake in England a couple of months ago:

"Not often I send these types of things out but with the uk earthquake last night it really makes you think...

With all the news on TV lately about the hurricanes that America is experiencing, the typhoons in China, flooding in Switzerland and recent mud slides in South America, we shouldn't forget that the UK has its share of devastating natural disasters too.

Attached is a photo illustrating the damage caused to my uncle's home from the
earthquake that occured last night.

It really makes you cherish what you have, and reminds us not to take things for granted.

Do take care of yourself and be safe."

Back in Bangalore...

I'm finally back in Bangalore with a streaming cold, chesty cough, and horrible jetlag.  It's hotter than Satan's crotch here and my body is freaking out after two weeks of snow, rain, wind and temperatures in the single digits centigrade.   I don't know about you, but I can't do with centigrade.  If I have a fever, it should be 103 not 38.something or other.  If it's hot, I want it to be in triple digits, not double digits.  I'm also very anti kilograms and kilometers, but I still think that England shouldn't be a part of Europe and that carrots should be all different shapes and sizes, not EU-ified as they have been.  

Anyway, back to Bangalore where the big news in my absence is that McDonald's is now selling chicken nuggets.  Oh, that and by 2011, in a water purification scheme, Bangaloreans may be drinking treated waste water.  That would be as opposed to the UNTREATED waste water that appears to come out of my tap now.  Welcome home.

Monsoon Madness

So, after much anticipation, the monsoon arrived in Bangalore a week ago yesterday. Heavy rains started just after 10pm and were accompanied by crashing thunder and continous lightning. Over the course of the last week, the storms have become worse, with the torrential rainfall lasting a few minutes, but causing enough damage to wash away homes and people! The worst came mid-week at 3am; we were woken by winds howling through the apartment and doors slamming. We quickly ran around closing windows before any damage was done. It was like a scene from the Wizard of Oz! Now the days are a little cooler in Bangalore, with temperatures peaking in the mid 80's, some overcast, some sunny, but up north is a different story. To date, 59 people have died up north (Rajasthan, Delhi, etc.) where temperatures are blazing at around 45 degrees centigrade (115 fahrenheit or so!) We shall be heading up there in a few weeks and will no doubt be yearning for the relative cool of Bangalore! Bangalore was always a cool spot - known as pensioners' paradise - and we have friends who tell us stories of how the temperature was in the mid 60's just 10 years ago, but how the arrival of hundreds of thousands of new people, cars, office blocks, and apartments, changed all that. It seems we have a long way to go til we reach the temperatures of Delhi, but at that rate, it could just be a few years away!