I'm still working on a post about my parents' trip around Rajasthan with us last week, so more on that later. Just wanted to update that we sorted everything out with our landlord and are back in our previous apartment with power ... but without heat.
That's not unusual - most homes here, even in the north of the country - don't seem to have either centralized heating sources or more importantly insulation ... so the temperature outside is the temperature inside. My computer is telling me it is currently 48 degrees Fahrenheit right now (as an aside, it is optimistically telling me it will reach 71 degrees later today ... been saying that for the last 3 days with temperatures never actually reaching above 55 degrees)
For people who can afford them, blowers (read: space heaters) are hoarded and huddled around. For those less fortunate - fires with any scrap material you can find is the best you can do. The cold is hitting Uttar Pradesh especially hard* with more than 200 people dying of weather related causes since the start of the winter. The article that had that statistic also mentioned that people were complaining because despite the recent cold snap the government has stopped running their government sponsored bonfires.
I just find this mind blowing. There is no way to shelter all the people on the street - so you build bonfires instead? Electricity is a scarce resource, but homes aren't insulated to keep cold in during the summer and heat in during the winter....? This happens every year people - this isn't something new... Yes, it is absurdly hot for most of the year ... but ... making no contingencies for cold in the winter....? What am I missing here...? How does this make sense? Or does it?
Maybe I'm just not made of tough enough stuff. Allen and I spent the past several evenings wearing our "outdoors" close and wrapped in blankets. I'm sitting here now in my living room thinking about making hot soup for lunch, but that would require getting out from under this blanket and standing around in the cold until its ready... What a wimp I am!
*I feel bad that I don't know the statistics for other more norther states, but the English Lucknow papers are all the real news I have access to.
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This was actually the case in New Zealand (my undergrad study abroad location), too: expensive electricity, generally not-well-heated homes, and yet no thought of better insulation. I lived in a pretty new apartment--it even had central heat!--and it still lacked basic insulation. You'd think a country that touts its environmentalism and whose parliament is generally a labour/green coalition would be better about conserving energy.
Hey guys -- you can get an affordable space heater at Big Bazaar. I think I paid Rs. 399 last year and it makes all the difference. In the meantime, bundle up and snuggle! J
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