My daughter and her ten-year old daughter are here with us. Knowing fully well that Angul is extremely hot in summer, that too in May, they come to stay with us for a month or so, when my granddaughter’s school is closed for summer vacation. When we got the e-mail that they were arriving Bhubaneswar on 10 May, I, my wife and our son Amlan went to Bhubaneswar to receive them in the evening at 7.20. They were arriving by the Trichy-Howrah Express. We left Angul at 3.0 pm, when Angul was really burning. We could not leave in the morning, as I had some important work to be finished. We really braved the heat. The hired car, in which we travelled, had no AC. We had plenty of water with us, and we put wet towels on our heads. But, the towels were getting dry within a few minutes. No wonder. The outside temperature was 40 Degrees Celsius. Upto Cuttack it was worse.
We arrived Bhubaneswar by 6 in the evening, and after having a cup of tea with my younger brother, we went to the station and received them. Their train was on time. We came to my younger brother’s place at the Xavier Institute of Management, had dinner and slept. My grand daughter, Kannie Kavery, a hyper-active child got sleep pretty late, as she was trying to compel everyone to listen to her. She was amusing us with her Oriya, interspersed with Tamil words and spoken in Tamil accent.
The next morning, after breakfast, we visited our relatives, and left for Angul. What about the heat on the way ? We thought we would reach Angul by 2 in the afternoon, and we did. We could not avoid the heat. No rain, water scarcity everywhere, and the unfriendly environment was very hard on us. But, the market was full of mangoes, and even the road side mango sellers after Dhenkanal were doing a brisk business. They were selling the local varieties at Rs.5 to Rs.6 a kilo.
Lunch was awaiting us. Pakhala ( cooked rice soaked in water), Curd, fried Potato and Potala, Sag (Spinach) and mango pickles. We were hungry and thirsty too. So first we drank Torani ( the Pakhala water ) and enjoyed our typical lunch to face the heat. Kavery also liked the lunch. We took mango and had our siesta till 5.30 pm, when Bela Pana ( the drink prepared out of Bel ) was waiting for us.
It was heat and heat, but we faced it bravely with Pani , Dahi and Torani.