May and June each year is the most difficult time in India, and the continuous hot and dry weather ravages every city. According to the statistics of the local meteorological bureau, the temperature in the capital New Delhi has been above 40 degrees Celsius for the same period in the past decade, and extreme high temperature weather of 52 degrees Celsius has even appeared in some areas. Every year in India, the number of people who die from hot weather is more than hundreds. Due to the weak infrastructure construction, the phenomenon of water and electricity cuts has become a common occurrence in India. In this case, the local residents have come up with various indigenous methods to spend the long and hot summer.

The house faces east, and the blanket is used to keep out the cold.

One of the best ways to resist high temperature is to avoid direct sunlight. Fortunately, most parts of India don't have to worry about winter, such as New Delhi, where the temperature will drop below zero degrees Celsius for only a few days throughout the year. In this case, most local residents choose the main entrance and windows to face east and west, and the north-south direction is used to contact their neighbors. This "east facing west" building structure has a remarkable heat insulation effect. Take the room environment where the reporter station is located as an example. Because there is basically no sunshine in the room at noon, every time I come back from the outside, I can immediately feel that the temperature in the room is much lower.

In addition, thick curtains and even blankets are also good helpers for ordinary people to prevent heatstroke and cool down. Whenever hot air blows, people usually choose to hide at home and avoid going out. While closing the doors and windows, use thick curtains to block the pervasive heat wave. In a closed environment, the sultry air will make people feel a little depressed, but in any case, the hot air of more than 40 degrees from the desert is finally blocked out.

The air conditioner exploded and the window rolled down.

Air conditioning is still a luxury for most ordinary people in India. In addition to the high initial investment, the huge electricity bill and fluctuating voltage network will also make people stay away from it. At the beginning of this century, Ansar Square, the first large shopping mall with central air conditioning in New Delhi, attracted a large number of people to enjoy the cool summer. Finally, the mall had to take restrictive measures to enter the market by ticket and check whether it was shopping.

What reporters often see in public places or residents' homes is a box-shaped "home-made air conditioner": a cage welded with steel bars is filled with straw, and then the straw inside is soaked in water. A high-speed fan is set at the back of the cage to blow the damp chill in the direction of the room, thus reducing the temperature of the whole room. Because this kind of "earth air conditioner" is cheap, does not need much electricity, and has strong adaptability to power grid fluctuations, it has a very good response in the Indian market, and many people are willing to buy one to spend the hot summer.

In fact, many Indians are more afraid of heat than stealing. In various parking lots in New Delhi, reporters often see many car owners parking with their windows open, so as not to get too hot inside when they come back. Generally speaking, due to the influence of religious ideas, theft in India does not happen frequently, so car owners use this method to avoid high temperature.

Have dinner late at night and prepare your own water and electricity.

Another change that summer brings to Indians is the schedule. Because the school has closed at this time, there is not much business in the market. Many restaurants and small shops in India don't officially start business until 8 pm, and people's dinner time is often delayed to around 1 1. Until then, the temperature became cool and pleasant, and midnight became the best time for people to visit relatives and friends and shop.

Water storage tanks are a must for every family in India. Because the supply of drinking water is intermittent, sometimes even "disappearing" for several days, the domestic water supply system in various cities in India is quite special: almost all houses choose to build underground pools to contain drinking water sent by waterworks, and then pump it into plastic water tanks similar to paint buckets placed on the roof with their own pumps, and finally provide it to people's daily lives through water pipes. When domestic water is extremely scarce, rich families can call a water truck for 500 rupees (1 USD, about 44 rupees) to deliver a car full of water, while those who have no money can only bear it by themselves.

So is electricity. In some high-end residential areas, people will buy diesel generators consisting of two or three car batteries to meet the power demand of low-power appliances such as lights and fans when power is cut off. However, these big guys who spend 30,000 to 50,000 rupees are simply beyond the reach of ordinary families. For them, silently enduring is the only choice after the power failure.

Excerpt from China House.