Blowing Dust

You know how some weather reports make you feel upbeat and happy, like “sunny” or “clear skies”, while others are just what you wanted to hear, like “chance of rain” in a drought or “snow” on Christmas?  Well in Delhi at this time of year we get roughly two reports and neither are very good:  “Hazy” and “Blowing Dust!”

Hazy typically means that the temperature will cross the 110 degree mark by 11:00am and that it will get so hot that the city will generate its own biosphere with a combination of pollution, dust and heat that will all but obscure any thought of a blue sky.  This is the typical Delhi day. 

Blowing Dust is an entirely different animal.  This weather phenomenon is generated somewhere in the surrounding wasteland, where a good, strong wind crosses the arid countryside and arrives in Delhi with the sole intention of blowing all the accumulated crap around.  It gathers up all the dust that has been settling since our last rain and blows it through the streets like pellets shot from a cannon.   The wind can be so strong that it knocks down barricades, so the transported dust & trash are pushed into every nook and cranny in the city.

In the apartment, the fine dust and dirt from the wind finds its way around every window and door to creates a lovely, albeit invisible film across the marble floor.  Only when the maid begins to sweep it up can you see the cumulative impact from the storm.  In the following days, the maid will work extra hard to ensure the apartment is free from the dusty invader and just when it is all clean, the weather report will read “Blowing Dust” and you begin again.