Beat the heat

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. 

There are varieties of inverters and batteries in the market, and it involves a bit of Physics to understand what capacity you require.

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.