Winter

Winter has a way of sneaking up on you. One day you have the AC on, and the next, you are debating whether to keep even the fan on. Even with global warming, that nip in the air does come around, deliciously, with that air of ‘is it-isn’t it?’ There is the mandatory conversation about how winter used to start around Dussehra, and go all the way beyond Holi (“One year we had to take out the woollens again after putting them away after Holi!”) Now that the duration of winter is drastically reduced it has become even more precious: to be savoured to the fullest. Yes, the clothes are bulkier and bed-making is a chore at this time of the year, but that is balanced by all the joys winter brings. There is basking in the winter sun to be done, chikki to be gorged upon, not forgetting the rewdi and the gajak. The first almost- translucent carrots to be looked forward to, they of gajar- ka- halwa fame. Yet all those calories can be burned by any kind of workout because one does not feel drained like one does in summer. The feeling of snuggling into blankets and quilts, cocooned in soft warmth, cannot be replicated by comforters in the AC in the summer. Winter blooms brighten anyone’s day, nodding in the slight breeze. Winter is also the time when the maximum weddings take place in North India. That’s when the ladies swish about in shimmering silks and the gentlemen look dapper in their suits. The chill of winter, enjoyed for such a short while, shores us up for the long, merciless summer.