Mountain of light

The summer is on us and it is time to stock up on the fluids and borough in during the day. The summers seem to be getting longer and more stronger every year or is it because my body is just getting run down and I can't take extremes as well as I used to. Growing up, I remember that acclimatizing myself, especially in the summers, was a very big deal for me. I used to make it a point to sleep without a fan for days together, to the horror of my family. I used to put myself through such hardships during the summer that you would think that I was preparing myself for a stint at some concentration camp! My father once told me "first deserve and then desire". Ok he told me that more than once and I kind of took it too literally. I said to myself , that I can't afford a desert cooler and I certainly can't afford an air conditioner and so then I can't be spoiling myself and developing habits that I couldn't support. This was ofcourse applicable to the cooling systems only! Even after getting my first job I never invested in a desert cooler, because by that time acclimatizing was pretty big with me and I didn't think there was any point in climate control in my room. I had to be one with nature and not run away from it. Those were hot summer nights.

Over the past few years I have come a long way from that state of affairs. I made do with a cooler for two years and this year it’s an air conditioner. The very sight of that air conditioner is an imposing sight in my room. It’s like a stranger in my room and I almost feel guilty turning it on. Climate control still rubs me up the wrong way and I hope that my body still retains some kind of conditioning to the heat outside. I have never wanted a Switzerland in my room, never wanted oxygen filling up my room or whatever those air-conditioning companies say to sell their wares. I am still not sure if investing in an air conditioner was the right decision, it’s pretty much been the first out and out luxury item I have ever gone for. I just think it’s terrible to be boarding up my doors and windows to keep the cool air in, this just leads to us getting used to exclusivity. This is how ivory towers are cooled aren't they? If our country is about heat and dust then its time we cleaned up and planted more trees to help bring the temperature down. Air conditioners and similar items to me reflect the gap between the haves and the have nots. It’s probably in a way ironic, that one side of the air conditioner throws cold air while the other side lets out a hot blast. Wonder what it takes for a have not to cross over from the hot side to the cold side?

Staying on this topic, I am quite fascinated by some of the air conditioner ads. There was one which had come out last year about turning the air conditioner on and going to Switzerland. Wonder why the company was talking about Switzerland when the Himalayas are so close to us and the Everest is just a few hours away by air. They've been talking about the benefits of nano technology in air conditioners and other white goods and I'll be interested to see how this hybrid air conditioners work. Nano technology promises much smaller devices to replace the big compressors and they will also be more energy efficient.

To cooler times...