I was home (back in New Delhi) last weekend, albeit only for 48 hours, and it was pretty crazy being back in the middle of the summer. Crazy, because I had expected it to be around 41 degrees (Celcius, please!) and no – it stayed in the late 20s and mid 30s and was hazy all the time. Plus drizzling every evening.
My grandma tells me that’s how it’s been for around a month or two now. Weird
Anyhow fast forward to Sunday morning and I step into the shower. I turn the knob.
Nothing comes out. For the first 10 seconds. Then there’s a small stream of water which slowly becomes really slow eventually.
Chuck it. I’m gonna do it old fashioned style – bucket and mug. I turn the tap.
A steady flow of water comes out for the first 3 seconds and then it turns into a not-so-fast stream.
It’s weird. This whole climate change thing. I hear winter was all hazy and not even that cold. I remember sometimes swiping the screen on my weather app and checking Delhi’s weather. It has said “Haze” every time, as far as I remember.
I pour a few mug fulls onto myself and lather up the soap.
Sometimes it seems that people really think climate change is a myth. Have you stepped outside and seen the weather? It’s worse than any apocalyptic disasters people predicted would happen in 2012 – this is happening right here right now and it’s shifting rapidly. People are REALLY blind.
Washing off the soap from my body. The stream of water seems to be thinning. Odd.
I shudder to think what would happen to mankind in the next 20 years. Or 10. You never know when this irreversible process claims its first victims. Already there are news reports of the first people displaced due to sea levels rising; maybe it’ll take something way bigger for people to realise the magnitude of what’s actually going on.
I seem to be using up more water than is pouring out of the tap. I’ll try to use lesser.
But then again, hurricanes and snow storms come and go, and people think they are either completely normal or freak occurrences. The polar vortex was heavy duty but life went on. Are we even able to see the reality, or have we resorted to ostrich-like behavior and buried our heads underground, pretending these changes aren’t happening?
Okay it’s a tiny stream now. I need to finish my bath quickly. I tilt the bucket, fill up the mug with whatever is left.
Sometimes I feel if it’s even worth carrying on the human lineage. I don’t want my kids to die a painful death in the extreme droughts and temperatures that are going to plague our next few decades. It’s happening already and to be honest I’m getting surer day-by-day that I will witness one of these disasters (if not more) in my lifetime.
The water stopped. There’s soap on my eyes. Damn!