By Rachaita Hore
Feel the nip in the air? Thats winter announcing itself. Longer nights, shorter days and mornings thickly veiled with fog. While cups of chai and layers of woolens are sufficient to battle the chill here, the weather is wreaking havoc in another hemisphere.
U.S.A has been experiencing the coldest temperature in two decades due to the Arctic Cold Front. With the temperature dropping as low as -55C in pockets of the country, it is no wonder that the Niagara Falls has come to resemble an ice-installation. Infact, the record low temperatures reigning over Chicago have given birth to the term Chiberia i.e. a portmanteau of Chicago and Siberia that best describes the polar vortex induced weather condition in the town. Hospital ERs across the nation are overflowing with cases of frostbite and hypothermia, which is a condition where the core body temperature falls below that required for the functioning of normal bodily processes. At least 20 deaths solely attributed to the weather have been recorded. New York was even forced to declare a state of emergency a few days back. An acquaintance in Ohio told me her neighbour had to have the tip of his nose surgically removed as he had left his face uncovered while venturing outside in the deadly cold. The fatal wind had killed all the cells on the skin left exposed till it was nothing but a dead mass.
These circumstances were largely unforeseen by the Americans. One has to salute their survival spirit as they persist over such harsh climate.
Meanwhile the Sun was playing tyrant in another part of the world. Australia and Brazil on the other hand have been struck with a heat wave. As the temperature hovers around 50C, reports tell of the death of thousands of bats in Queensland. Estimates chalk the number to three thousand and counting. Citizens have compared their discomfiture to that of having ones head inside an oven. Frequent power-cuts and glitches in water supply add on to the misery of the already hapless.
So while we debate over censorship in China, Parliamentary Elections in India, whether Prince Harry will listen to the Queen and do away with his beard in England and diplomatic relations and the agenda for our future elsewhere nature quietly reshuffles our priorities. Man made society but the Earth is ancient. Human knowledge is finite and there are subjects beyond the grasp of scientific calculations and derivations. And this, we may loath to admit but we are a self-indulgent and eventually powerless race servile to natures whimsy.
If the currently prevailing climatic conditions are not clear indications of natures retort to mans exploitation, I dont know what is. Remember watching the film- 2012? Well, it does look familiar, doesnt it? So maybe we get a decade more at most, but now we have a paid preview to what Armageddon is really going to look like. No nuclear wars, no genocide, just nature reminding man of his origin. Hallelujah!
The author is a second-year English Hons student at Lady Brabourne College, Calcutta University. She is a wannabe-writer/journalist and has been authoring articles on and off for The Times of India since her first-year. She has also had her fictional pieces featured in various national magazines, online and offline, notably Kindle Magazine and Youthopia. Feminist, Hipster, Oddball are all labels that have been used at some time or the other to describe her. To start a dialogue, drop her a mail at rachaita.h@gmail.com