Why I Am Reading Weather Reports These Days

"शनिवार को हुई बारिश के बाद रविवार को दिनभर तेज धूप रही। धूप से शहर तपने लगा। बीते दिनों हुई बारिश के कारण उमस जैसा माहौल होने से लोग गर्मी से परेशान होने लगे हैं। मौसम में आ रहे बार-बार परिवर्तन से लोगों की दिनचर्या पर भी असर पड़ रहा है।"

For some reason, I find this weather bulletin ridiculously literary and entertaining. It has short sentences and a flat, unemotional tone* that belong to a Simenon novel.

If I may stretch things a bit further, I will say there's even a Camusian air to it, almost like a scene from "The Stranger":

"I waited. The heat was beginning to scorch my cheeks; beads of sweat were gathering in my eyebrows.It was just the same sort of heat as at my mother’s funeral, and I had the same disagreeable sensations—especially in my forehead, where all the veins seemed to be bursting through the skin. I couldn’t stand it any longer, and took another step forward. "

Rest of the weather report is here. (link to bhaskar.com, in Hindi.)

*For best results, read the report like a voiceover in a film (a violent film about outsiders and loners, like, say, "Taxi Driver").

If it interests you, check out this essay by Paul Theroux on Simenon and Camus. (Link to Timesonline)