Burning

Bangalore is super hot. It used to be windy but now hardly a leaf moves in the trees. We haven't even had a good spell of rain for so long. 

Once we were in my in-laws' place in the summer. Temperatures of the season are 40+ there and we were staying in the old house those days. It had only two small windows, both in the hall, which was used by the men. The women slept in the Gods' room, filling that small space. No fan there, of course. Parvati Akka, my third co-sister, was the one who managed that household and it typically took her a minute to sleep off, rain or shine. Me? My grandmother's place wasn't different those days so I could condition my mind to go to sleep after a while. But Saru Didi, my second co-sister, was the hardest hit. She came there only when we visited and she could never get used to it. So that day she tossed and turned for a while, cursing both the external and internal factors which drove her sleep away. Then she had an idea. She said we could sleep in the empty fields, it was a beautiful moonlit night too. It sounded nice to me. So we woke Parvati Akka up who was reluctant, also her husband and mine. Charpais were in abundance so we took one each and put them in the field. The night was indeed beautiful and Parvati Akka went back to her sleep. Others got to talking, enjoying the breeze, ready to doze off but that was not to be. We had not factored in the mosquitoes, which were having a field day(night). We tried hard to ignore them but they were just too many. We finally acknowledged that sleep was impossible and trudged back home, leaving the charpais behind. But not before Parvati Akka had given us an earful.