I am trying something new these days- To see how long how I can go before switching the heat on in the apartment.
As I think about it, it could elicit a slew of emotions from those to who I reveal this. Someone living in the west coast-say Los Angeles (where the daily temperatures range from warm to mildly cold), might say "Thats insane! Are you trying to be green or something? Switch the heat on. I am freezing here".
Someone who lives in New York, where the ambient temperature ranges from freezing to 10 degrees below (C or F!), they might think- "Spoilt californian tree-hugger! This is just another far-fetched way of showing off your mild winter temperatures. Why dont you try and do this in New York? You wouldn't live to see the next hour".
Someone from Delhi might say "How else would one live? You people actually have heated homes in American?! No wonder you consume so much energy"
I am doing it to see if it is possible to pull along without an actively heated lifestyle. I estimate that, on average, I spend a good half day in 50F weather every day. Longer on weekends. Nothing to brag about, I know. But my perception has changed of cold living, and of people who live in it day in an day out.
First of all, living in the cold takes on a new meaning when there is no source of heat to fall back on. As one would expect, you tend to aggregate toward heat sources, wherever they may be-a clothes dryer, a warm shower, socks to keep the feet warm, more time on the laptop (the internet is an amazing place to browse around aimlessly!!), cooking elaborate hot meals, two blankets, running to warm up and then continuing running to stay warm. Even spending more time in the sun that streams through the open window shades became a source of warmth. Like insects in winter. I remember there were these spiny caterpillars, which used to congregate on the bark of a drumstick tree we had in our garden. Imagine the shock and terror of a 10-year old, on seeing a black mat of these wooly creatures stuck to the bark. It only happened in the not-so-cold winter months in Trichy. Guess they were there for the warmth too.
I remembered my mom sitting near the one sunlit window in the apartment in Jabalpur one late december morning. She looked so different from the days we had spent far south in Trichy. She had on a sweater and a scarf. She wore these oddlooking socks which had space for the toes also. Indian winter socks for women! In Madhya Pradesh, the day time temperatures in January dipped to 40F. Without active heating of anything in the house, everything became a heat sink, sucking the living heat away from you when you touch anything! Blankets were like sheets of ice, it felt like a thousand needles poked your feet when you walked barefoot on the cement floor. They listened, eyes growing wide with wonder, when I told them of entire houses heated so well that one could walk about in shorts, when it was snowing outside.
Waking up is the toughest part. It is foggy in the mornings here. My mind thinks "Wake up! Its 6.30am!!, to which my body replies "Why? What possible work do you have to do? The family is away. You breakfast takes 20 seconds to make. No meetings until 10am. What possible sane reason can you give that would convince me to act? If you do not have any, I am going back to sleep. Wake me up when the phone rings or something."
Today was different. I was up so I could write this in my blog. It has been about a month now, and things are going well for the resolve is still there. The temperatures are going to dip down to the forties in the net few weeks. I rub my hands- partly in expectation, and mostly to warm them up.
Thanks for reading
