Everyone goes through the phase in a year when it is just too hot like the hell and you just want to jump into a large pool of ice cubes to cool yourself down. Photo by Burak Kostak
It was almost 9.15 pm when I reached home, tired and weak.
The traffic has been bad as usual and it did not help that despite the car conditioner being set to the maximum, I can still feel the heatwave as hell on the outside. I can sense the same seeing the faces of the other drivers as they too struggle to drive through the traffic and the heatwave.
To make things worse, I have been having very bad “dry” coughs ever since I returned from the Pangkor trip. So the drive home in a heatwave like a hell was an understatement and was not pleasant as it used to be. It strains me, even more, to navigate through the traffic.
I reached home and was very hungry and I guess it was due to the heatwave. The good thing was my wife had already made cooked up a hearty dinner. I noticed my son was playing in the living room, without his shirt on. He too was feeling warm like hell despite sitting down under the cooling fan the whole day.
Despite it being a routine, I opted not to play with him this time as I did not want him to contract the dry coughs as well. Besides, I have not taken my bath and I was feeling rather sticky. Still coughing, I made myself up to the master bedroom, getting ready for a “cool” bath. The bedroom was warm but the bathroom was warmer.
I touched the wall of the bathroom and it was hot like hell. It was as if someone had placed a large fire behind the wall and the fire was getting hotter. Hell was on the other side of the wall.
I switched on the tap, hoping for a cold shower but was disappointed when it was nothing but a mild warm as if someone has warmed up the cold water in the pipes. But I had no choice but to use this warm water for the shower.
Not surprisingly, when I stopped the shower, I started to sweat like hell. I was still feeling hot when I walked down after my “shower”. The temperature outside the house at night was thankfully low – there was a slight cool breeze in between the warm pockets of air. But despite this, there was no sign of the interior of the house getting any cooler.
I am praying for heavy rain that very night but it was wishful thinking as it was a dry season in this part of the country. It was time to get a large, powerful air conditioner unit for the house as one can only predict that this kind of hellish heatwave is only going to get worse in the coming years and we don’t want the kids to sleep in this kind of hell at night.