A real Delhi winter this has been after ages; but spare a thought for the Russians
Old-timers in the Capital are agreed that after years the Winter which is now on its way out despite the Met Office promise of a few days of cold and possibly wet weather over the next 10 days has been the closest we have had to a real kadakewaali Dilli ki sardi of yore. The cold weather is now slowly losing its bite though that hasn’t stopped that other old Delhi tradition of sunning oneself at every available opportunity. Braving the pollution and the concretization of the city, millions have spent the past month on balconies, in parks, and making a beeline for public squares near their offices to soakin the Sun and bring a semblance of warmth to their ‘frozen bones’, as it were. Cities across the world in more temperate zones get much, much colder than Delhi, of course, but then central heating or built-in radiators are a default feature of every workplace and home across Europe and North America which is definitely not the situation in these parts. Understandably so, given we have only a month at best of single digit minimum temperatures. But even as you read this, hopefully happily ensconced in bed under a warm quilt with a cup of tea by your side, spare a thought for the Russians, more specifically the residents of Moscow.
Denizens of Russia’s capital city, though accustomed to long, cold and bitter winters, have this year received a grant total of six minutes of sunshine in December. Yes, six minutes for the entire month. According to a New York Times report, this December was the darkest recorded in the city since recording of weather data began. While the average sunlight Moscow gets in December is nothing to write home about — it’s a measly 18 hours — six minutes is, we think all would agree, beyond the pale.
This may explain the acute depression Muscovites in particular and Russians in general are thought to be subject to, not to mention the copious amounts of vodka and tea-with-jam consumed to keep the spirits from flagging, both literally and figuratively, it has also led to a sharp rise in visits to shrinks. Taking the broad view, which is perhaps possible only when writing from pleasant, 20 degrees centigrade environs with the Sun shining brightly, it is surely the weather that has contributed in a major way to producing that vast tome of Russian literature populated by depressive, tortured souls searching for solace in the human condition — from Gorky to Dostoevsky and Bulgakov though they are admittedly not to everybody’s taste. In more contemporary times, it’s this cold, dark and often wet weather that explains the hordes of Russian tourists who arrive in Goa in charter flights beginning October-November on long-stay tourist visas till February-March, and who can be spotted from a mile off by their red brick, lobster-like complexion as they soak in the Sun.