Hello Good people,
While Bengaluru is trying to understand the meaning of terms
like ‘summer vacation”, “air-cooler” etc., I just thought of publishing one
more blog, understandably coming after a few light-years.
I started writing this blog last year April, and whenever I
began editing or proof-reading, it started raining and went on for few months,
making the content irrelevant. This time though,
the intent is clear. J
Idea is definitely neither to share same age-old suggestions
like - eat cucumber and water melon, drink water etc., nor to sulk like oldies
saying “this year, it’s worst-summer-than-ever”. Thought of sharing some different ideas to manage the
summer.
1)
Get the monkey off the back:
This is mainly for the office goers who use two-wheeler.
Carrying a laptop bag on shoulder while riding is always a nuisance. thollaya thol’la maatikitu porome, che.
And in summer, your formal shirt becomes
a ‘sweat-shirt’ and sitting with it in A/C only makes things worse. So, do consider fitting a side box in your bike, in which
you can comfortably put your laptop and accessories. You can consider stitching
a small cloth bag which makes it easy to carry. You get one from Aerostar brand from
most accessory shops around JC road that fits a 14 inch laptop.
This will not be an obstacle to the pillion, in fact, it
helps because the pillion’s thigh just lands on the box comfortably!
I did this in my Avy and using it for more than a year now. I
can easily feel the difference – feels like God !
2)
Get the power:
If you check the Indian dictionary for summer – one of the
synonyms will be “power cut”. No need to
explain this more. So, I would suggest
to get an UPS / Inverter installed. For a minimum of 2-3 fans and 1 light, you won’t
require a heavy inverter. I guess a 600 VA would do.
To keep it simple – ask yourself two questions – what all
appliances you want to run during power cut (like 2 Fans, 2 light, one Mixer
etc.,), how long you want those appliances to run (depends on average duration
of power cut in your area).
3)
Baby’s day out:
It’s an unfortunate pain that we always have a “summer”
vacation for the kids. Problem is simple – Kids want to be outdoor, but outdoor
has free offers such as dehydration, sunburn etc., No kid is in a drinking or
eating mood. And if they are indoor, grazing them is a headache.
We can have some physical yet indoor games such as a
basketball game, Dart, table tennis etc., except for TT, others don’t always
need a partner but just a supervision.
4)
Put it blindly:
And yes, the blinds. One-time set-up. Very effective for the
balconies. Just scroll down in the morning, and up by dusk. Blinds are
available in various materials, models like for monsoon, sun rays etc.,
Other alternative is to have an old cloth like old bed sheet,
wet it, and hang it in the balcony of windows to block heat waves.
5)
Wat ? er ..
This hyperlinks to my earlier blog on harvesting of water-filter outlet water. Summer also naturally means
water problem in most cities. So, this water can atleast be used for plants,
cleaning the floor, flush etc.,
http://kevivnajar.blogspot.in/2015/01/wat-er.html
I hope atleast one of these ideas help you. If you have more
ideas, please feel free to add it in the comment section, or send a short note
to me, I’ll link it here for the benefit of others.
