Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Hot sands

How we Indians loathe the sun and the heat.

And how strange it is that foreigners just never seem to get enough of it.

Out there on the beach right now the sun worshippers are probably lying on towels and slowly roasting their bodies, or sitting under beach umbrellas, or frolicking in the water with only dark glasses to keep them cool.

Crazy though they seem, it’s probably cooler on the beach with the sea breeze blowing. And definitely – definitely, I think – cooler in the water. The sun is never so hot when you’re in the sea.

But imagine making the effort to go out into the sun, to brave the terrible white glare till you reach the beach, to cross the burning hot sands until at last you reach the sea.

Only the flowers seem to flourish, and the hotter it is the more brilliantly they blaze.

Sun worshipping is not for Indians. Surya namaskar is as far as we’ll go.

1 comment:

jayram said...

I guess it’s as crazy as we Indians eating hot spicy food in the middle of a hot summer- apparently hot spicy food (Andhra food for example) makes you sweat ,regulates body temperature and helps it to handle the heat-I was feeling light headed and high after one sweaty eating session in Andhra- these goras have such cold weather and one would think that a hot spicy meal would make you feel wonderful, which is not the case at all- they eat the blandest of food during winter- anyway hot spices only grow in hot tropical climates so the hot- hot theory probably has some merit-