The weather has been so surprisingly nice these past few days in Gurgaon; that the air conditioners we hastily serviced and started up have fallen silent again. I always wondered why North Europeans constantly talk about the weather. Not just the English, but the Dutch and the Germans and the Swedish that I have had occasion to know place weather at the center of their social conversation and are quick to complain about the cold and the rain.
Increasingly I am noticing that we in India have started doing so as well. It’s a fallout perhaps of a change in prosperity where we start spending more time in air conditioned environments and the real weather outside comes as a surprise, at times an awfully rude one, when we step outside.
The other perspective I often think about is that it is those who suffer from lack of sunshine that complain the most. My yoga teacher was explaining to us the benefits of sun gazing during dawn and sunset. She highlighted the restorative, energising properties of sunlight and the powers of concentration and focus we can derive from meditating while looking at the sun at first or last light. Sunlight creates feelings of positivity and it wasn’t for nothing that the sun occupies a significant positions in many ancient religions, in Hinduism and in ancient Egypt for instance.
We in India complain about the summer heat all the time. We should be thankful that we see nearly twelve months of beautiful sunshine. That is why we are the happiest, most boisterous, loud and crazy people on earth! So when the weather changes to the fierce unforgiving heat, as it must, I will try and remember that this sun is a source of much if the positivity in my life!