A SUMMER'S DAY

Sitting under an awning, on a pavement in front of Starbucks, on the Northcote Road, Clapham, London is bliss. All that one needs is a book in hand and some coffee on the table. The world goes by, life goes by!!

It is a hot summer's day. The temperature is around 28 degrees Celsius - strangely, this would be a coooooool day in Delhi, but in London it is actually sweltering. There are signs on the entrances to the tube station telling a person how to remain cool and hydrated. The hospitals have been alerted, as they may have to attend to people suffering on account of the heat. There is a lot of discussion all over the print media as well as on Television that the heat is too much and advising people how to deal with the heat. One would think that people would remain indoors to avoid the heat....... far from it, they are all out on the Commons trying to get a nice sun tan!! No one moves out without sunscreen and suntan lotion!! All this at 28 degrees Celsius???

The fact is that the sun actually scorches you and appears to be closer. The direct rays of the sun burn and cause a lot of discomfort. There is no pollution, no dust haze, nothing between the sun and the human being. People love to sun bathe, and look like tomatoes as their skin gets tanned and before tanning looks red. Strangely, they want to attain the skin tone which looks brown. We in India think a dark complexion is an absolute no-no. How we advertise complexion lightening creams and lotions! Children are taught very young that a dark skin is not desirable. Every one would remember having been told in childhood, "don't drink tea or your complexion will become dark". This sort of a statement is enough for the lasting impression to form in a child's mind that dark complexion is not good and must be avoided. This is how we inculcate the sense of discrimination, superiority and bias in the young and clean minds of children. The way we try to lighten our skin with milk, lemon and all sorts of concoctions!! No one is happy with what they have. We brown skinned people want to be fairer. We have so many different shades of fairness. Read any matrimonial advertisement in India, and one is sure to come across the term- wheatish complexion-which actually denotes a slightly lighter shade of brown.

Coming back to my lovely day under the awning - I was loving every moment of it, as I sat in the shade and relaxed on a pavement. Cannot think of doing this in Delhi, even at 20 degrees Celsius. Firstly, in any metropolitan city in India, there is no space on the pavement, and if there is space then someone will stand next to my table and stare alternately between me and my cup to determine by when I would be pressurised to vacate the table, for him or her to occupy. Relaxing, taking your own time and sitting sprawled with one cup of coffee for the whole morning, is an unheard of thing.

Life in the western hemisphere is so different from the east. There is something called personal space, which we in the east are not used to. In a store people queue up to pay, in India as well as here. The difference is that in India we stand very close to each other. We do not leave any space in between. We literally breathe down the neck of the person standing in front of us. If we leave space, someone is bound to come and stand there. In the western world I have seen space and respect for the space that one is entitled to. There is a lot of patience too. Everyone waits for their turn. No jostling, no pushing, no craning of the neck, and no exhibition of rage. Patience is a virtue which is very visible here. Patience makes a person more tolerant, because everyone learns to wait for their turn. This virtue of patience changes the entire attitude and perspective of people and it is people who make a nation.

Back to my pavement again-sitting on the pavement and watching people go by is a lovely feeling. I saw young mothers with babies in prams going about their business, old ladies meeting for coffee, people waiting for a bus, young people jogging along by a side lane listening to music on their i-pods........ time just went by for me. It was a lovely morning doing nothing but enjoying the time of the day with no bother in my head, except to see the fleeting moments of time go. I felt free, without a care in the world, at least for that moment. Coffee, a book, people going by, time by myself on a hot summer's day in London is indeed bliss.