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Beautiful Summer TOI 28 May 2009 English Teaching Aid

I am teaching my English literature class of undergraduates, fresh from rural schools, in the middle of a north Indian desert summer. Through the grimy windows we can see the dust devils spinning in the far distance. During this season, the landscape appears in tones of grey and brown, sometimes obscured entirely by a dust storm that blots out everything in a swirling haze. We are thirsty all the time.
 As one launches into Shakespeare's sonnet, 'Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day', my somnolent class looks mildly interested, their expressions soon changing to disbelief. I can see them thinking, 'These crazy angrez. Who is this Sexpeare, comparing his lover to summer?'

But summer is not just weeks of helpless suffering for those who have to live through them. The beautiful mogra, the essence of summer, blooms lavishly, spreading its heady, intoxicating fragrance far into the sultry night.
Entwined in the hair of the beloved in the initial, exhilarating months of a first love, it is as though she has bound her lover to herself with the scent of an as yet unspoken covenant: No matter where you may be in the years hence, whenever you inhale the perfume of the mogra, for as long as you live, you will think of me.
 Summer is synonymous with power cuts, leading to long evenings on freshly-watered lawns; lying back at leisure on mattresses or cots spread out on the terrace; forgetting the TV for a few hours as you exchange little bits of news and gossip with the neighbours whom you rarely see, let alone talk to.
 And, of course, summer is mangoes of all shapes and colours and flavours to bite into, to suck on, to whip into cool shakes or freeze into ice creams. The way one eats a mango is a good judge of personality the more uninhibited the relishing of the fruit, the more earthy the person.
And, as unpleasant as it may sound, the perspiration is actually good for you, keeping your skin clear, hydrated and young. So go ahead and enjoy the blessings of summer as long as it lasts, for thunderclouds are waiting just beyond the horizon!

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