Earth's Thirsty Embrace

I am shamelessly envious of you if you cook in an air-conditioned kitchen. It's a pity that despite the extreme temperatures (over 50 degrees Celsius in peak summers), the kitchens here have no cooling system. I am a decent cook according to my family but I wouldn't say I like going in the kitchen in this suffocating weather. Only an insane person or a helpless Pakistani woman (and sometimes a man) would stand in front of the fire (burner) in these temperatures, for hours.

We could install induction stoves but then who will pay the skyrocketing electricity bills? We could get solar panels but that would require 2 or 3 salaries (thinking about this only viable solution). We barely afford to use an air-conditioner to survive the heat and this is me saying who belongs to an upper-middle-class category (according to the 2023 categorization) and yet the inflation and expenses constantly remind me that I shouldn't belong to this category. Only the elite class can live a decent life in this country. I am not being ungrateful for my living standard but the future scares me, things are exponentially getting worse. I can't imagine how the lower class survives. They don't live, they do the bare minimum - survive.

I have gotten off track, I didn't mean to run you through the economic conditions of the country. I wanted to write yet another rain blog. Who writes about something as trivial as rain? Yes, that's me who doesn't often get to see the earth take a shower.

^{My front yard in this February - the colours in this picture are a general representation of the town where I live.}

I live in a dusty, rusty, and arid remote town near a cheerless desert. Despite the big windows in my kitchen, I can't ventilate it because of sudden dust storms which masque the whole home in thick layers of dust in a matter of few seconds. The dust and strangest species of insects easily slide through the closed doors and windows. Yesterday's episode once again reminds me to get the home insulated. I have been procrastinating in hopes of getting a better accommodation. Another dangling sword but which can hopefully bring some peace to my domestics.

It was unbelievably hot yesterday and standing in the kitchen was like directly feeling the hot gushes from hell. It was one in the afternoon, but the sky turned from bright blue to gray, orange, and then back to gray. With it, the strong but cool gusts of wind came, filling the air with thick dust. Before I could get a chance to seal the home, the squeaky clean home turned spooky white. I just needed a couple of spiderwebs to complement the dusty facade.

I didn't say anything (just vented a little to the husband) but I was pretty annoyed at the situation when suddenly, the skies opened up and unleashed a torrential downpour with all their might and there my anger went down the drain along the rain.

^{GIF lowered the quality of the video but look at the speed of wind}

What do you call a storm with no thunder but only wind and rain? Although rain was recorded to be only 11.8 mm but the wind was blowing at the speed of 68 nautical miles (126 km/h) the last we checked. I have experienced 90 nautical miles once which wreaked havoc and took one life too. Since then I always feel a little agitated when storms come.

It was nice to see the dusty surroundings bathing in rain and the plants finally showing off their true green. It was like a river was flowing in place of the flowerbeds in my front yard. When I wrote the previous rain blog, I was at my parents. In case you are wondering why she's writing about it again.

^{Who doesn't love taking pictures of a rain-streaked windowpane?}

The rainstorm stayed for a good 3 hours and then occasional drizzling till late in the night. The weather got pleasant with the cool breeze. It was like the Earth had officially cooled down.

^{Situation right now - the lawn wasn't parched because it's been watered every other day but the roadsides at the front are already bone dry and look at the yellow grass of the neighbours, courtesy of the direct sunlight.}

Although these pleasantries didn't last for long, we had to switch to the air-conditioners by midnight, and in the morning, it was like it never rained. The muddy puddles were gone, the riverbeds had vanished, the earth was completely dry, with no trace of any moisture and the heat was back. It was like the Earth was extremely parched and the little rain of yesterday couldn't quench its thirst.