Sunny, hot, humid, breezy and refreshing can describe a summer’s day. However, each adjective can become extreme other than refreshing. Summer in India can be hot, hotter and hottest. It can be humid and muggy also. Then a breeze will blow, which makes one forget the heat and humidity. Summer in the northern hemisphere is different and is much loved. Poets write with exuberance about it. In India we look out for the fragrance of the Raat ki Rani (queen of the night) creeper and the delicious mangoes and melons.
Indian Summer
A fiery sun, a dusty haze
Indian summer, golden days
Mangoes sweet, chilled delight
Heat that dances, day and night.
Indian Summer
The sun, a fiery molten coin,
Beats down on lands that sweat and toil.
Each breath, a struggle hot and thin
As dust devils dance and swirl and coil.
Yet amidst the blaze a vibrant hue,
Mangoes ripen gold and bright,
Jasmine scent, a fragrant brew
A cool relief in fading light.
The cuckoo’s call, a sweet refrain,
Breaks through the haze a joyful sound.
Though summer’s heat
May bring some pain,
Its gifts of joy can still be found.
For in this season’s fiery grace,
A beauty blooms, a potent art,
And life through harsh,
Finds its own space,
A summer’s warmth within the heart.
Bed in Summer
In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle light.
In summer quite the other way
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the trees,
Or hear the grown-up peoples’ feet
Still going past, me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day? – Robert Louis Stevenson
Both the poems of summer in India are anonymous.
Those of us who have experienced the different summers in India and the northern continents, will have different memories.
In the Bhagwad Gita, chapter 2, verse 14 discusses the impermanence of happiness and distress, comparing them to the changing seasons of winter and summer. It advises that these experiences are not permanent and should be endured without being overwhelmed by them. This applies to all of us.
Enjoy the summer, dear ones.
Aim Hrim Klim