Okay, I admit it...the heat is now definitely getting to me. The "Hot Season" started less than a week ago, and the temperature has been shooting up higher and higher each day. Before, I could handle it. Now, I just want the sun to disappear. Perhaps it's because I can see the end of my trip quickly approaching, and thus I can "feel" cooler weather and rain coming soon. Or maybe it's simply hot. In Bhavnagar, during the midday, it's around 38 degrees Celsius...or 100.4 degrees F. Yeah, and it's getting hotter. I'm so glad I'm leaving when I am.
What's fascinating to me is how the clothing, as it does everywhere, has adapted to deal with the heat. Let's start with the women. Saris, panjabis (salwaars), channiyachoris (langas)...remarkably breatheable, or so I hear. Also, with saris, women keep their bellies uncovered, thus letting in the air. And the blouses and tops for these are all with short sleeves. And what about the chunnis and paloos? They serve some great purposes in the heat. Okay, well, they suck when you wear them around your neck like a scarf, because they prevent your skin from breathing. However, draped over the head, they can keep off the sun. Wrapped around the face, they keep out the dust and dirt, made more prevalent by the heat. And wrapped around the body, they can keep away the mozzies (mosquitoes) that come out at night. In all, women's clothing is very good in the heat.
And for men? Of course, the traditional lungis and dhotis allow lots of air to get to the legs. Shorts are really uncommon here, but that doesn't seem to bother many men, because shirts have been adapted for cooling purposes. Shirts are made with very thin, and often sheer, materials. I have even seen many young men wearing mesh, with nothing underneath. Basically, skin is highly visible. Even one man had slashes going along his entire shirt, like it had been put through a paper shredder. As he rode by on his two-wheeler, it was obvious that air was blowing up against his skin. Finally, if you don't have a holey or a shredded shirt, you can always keep your shirt (which is different from a t-shirt, which doesn't have buttons) mostly open, so that only the bottom few buttons are being used, and so air really can get in. Oh, and very rarely do men go around shirtless...they have to be doing construction or something, and then it's still rare.
Of course, there are still some people I don't understand. Many men still wear full-sleeved and even sweater-like shirts. And some women bundle up quite a bit. But, for the most part, Indians are prepared to handle the heat, unlike me...
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