HALFWAY TO BOILING

As city turns smelter, the Met office marked this May as hottest in 11 years; while 52°C was a false alarm, upwards of 46.7°C were never witnessed since Independence; the heatwave has claimed two lives. With water supply constrained, empty vessels in queues and erupting fires, summer looks dire...

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DO you know how heat stroke sets in? Your bare head under a cloudless blue-gray sky, exposed to the pitiless. white of the mid-noon Sun, gets hotter and hotter. Your face, assaulted by hot winds, your tongue, trachea scorched; your palate has been dry for hours; how long have you not been sweating? Haven't you noticed? And now your internal temperature is shooting up. Do you see flashing lights, black spots in your visions? Maybe it is the mirage. You're breathing is shallow, strained. A nausea is creeping up your esophagus. Is your heart thumping; head getting heavier? Would you like to close your eyes?

A Google search will tell you during heat stroke, body temperature rises rapidly. Now, our body has certain mechanisms to maintain homeostasis, an optimal condition at which physiological processes may continue to ensure proper body functions; sweating is one such mechanism to release excess heat accumulating in the body. Thus, when it fails, internal temperatures may spike to over 106°F (6° warmer than normal) or higher within 10 to 15 minutes. If untreated, tissues will start to die; wreaking havoc on vital organs and processes. Needless to say, this will usher in grave complications, even death.

As the city turns into a smelter in the severe heat, we have lost two fellow residents to the heatwave, both succumbing to heatstroke. And then there are the other ramifications, some more subtle than the other. Water supply has taken a hit; drums, utensils, buckets, paint-cans, and almost every other vessel queuing up for hours on end to secure the minimum water (if lucky). And the fires; erupting across the city as electrical devices, wiring overheat, melt, fuse, explode, fires have robbed us way too much. While we may not always attribute these losses to the heatwave, its effects loom in the background.

FRYING PAN ON FIRE