The summer season can prove to be a blessing for people in some parts of the world, but it can also simmer the life out of some other people
IT’S summer time. The season always has two facets. In Europe it is sweet and pleasant; and in Asia, it brings sweltering, often unbearable, heat.
Surprisingly, Europe’s last summer proved a tad too hot. In Germany it was so hot that the weather claimed many a life.
In Asia it is always hot and sizzling in the season under discussion. Summer in Pakistan does not set in all of a sudden, rather it arrives gradually.
In the summer season, nights’ time span gets shortened. The adage ‘early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise’ can best be practised in the summer. In 2002, the government asked everybody to move their clocks ahead by one hour in the summer season, using daylight to the optimum. It was a thoughtful move.
It is said that the season reaches its peak in June or July. Entire Pakistan at that time falls prey to the two Js. The extraordinary heat from the sun beats down on every object. No one can escape it and everyone feels like a fish out of water. Scorching heat persists for many months and it is somewhere in the middle of September when the summer at last makes way for another, a bit cooler, season.
The summer season may not be as cosy and comfortable as we read in William Wordsworth’s poems (1770-1850] wherein the poet calls everyone to enjoy the happiness and charms of the season. In our country people enjoy hot weather but in a different way. They begin wearing different kinds of clothes and spend most of their evenings outside their houses, at restaurants or recreational spots.
Apart from that, the season brings along gale, strong winds, whirlpools, windstorms and hailstorms too, but not very often. In some parts of the country, especially in the Thal desert, localities get affected by sandstorms.
Late Justice M.R. Kayani, (1902-1962) writes in his book Not the whole truth that once he was asked whether he had experienced any storms during his stay in the region. He wittily replied that he had experienced only one duststorm which started in July and ended in June. Duststorms are usually of two colours, pink and black. Whereas windstorms blow at different speeds at different times and at different places.
Duststorms are of some use as well. Seasoned farmers can see which way the wind is blowing and get their heaps of corns flown to some other places without toil and labour. On the other hand, when duststorms stop, people wander around to find new and strange things around them. In fact, shifting of many things takes place and in this process some gain and some lose. The whole activity though lasts for a short duration, but shakes everyone who is a witness to it.
During the season it does rain once or twice. Rain in the summer is greeted with especial fervour, though.
In 2003, it rained heavily in the summer. Karachi is said to have received more than double of what it usually gets in the season. Young people came out in the rain and enjoyed it thoroughly. Longfellow (1807-1882) in his poem “When the rain is coming” says
How beautiful is the rain
After the dust and heat
In broad and fiery street
In the narrow lane
How it clatters along the roofs
Like the tramps of hoops
The summer brings changes to the eating and drinking routine too. Nature bestows us with its blessing during the period, as we find a variety of fruit and vegetables available to us.
The summer has its own distinct features in different parts of the country. In the desert areas, days are hot but nights are cooler. In the sandy areas people enjoy their sleep to the hilt. Surprisingly in those areas sand does not spoil anyone’s clothes.
With the arrival of summer, the tourism industry gets a boost. How to make people visit pleasant and cooler places requires art and convincing power. Generally, very few people are able to avail tourist packages and the majority reaches such destinations without much preparation, hence end up getting cheaper places with not much facilities.
The summer season, no doubt, keeps the dwellers of warmer areas often discussing how to beat the heat. In the words of our national poet Allama Iqbal ‘the wind blows to lift you higher and higher’.
At the same time the summer season keeps us alert to certain realities.
In the days of yore canals and ponds were used for cleaning and washing oneself. Everybody could go in and have as many dips as one liked. Those were the days when there was water in rivers and canals; but not anymore. Modern man has now made swimming pools which only the ‘haves’ can enjoy but not the ‘have-nots’.
Having said that, one would like to state that God has blessed Pakistan with all kinds of natural beauty. The summer season is one such manifestation. In our Northern Areas, the season has a completely different colour to what we have in Sindh, or Karachi in particular. It would do those people who live in warmer areas a world of good if during the summer some recreational facilities that can help beat the heat are made. Since there are a great many people who can’t afford to visit the Northern Areas of Pakistan and prefer to stay in their respective cities.
The summer season can prove to be a blessing for people in some parts of the world, but it can also simmer the life out of some other people 
