British people love to talk about the weather but we’re amateurs compared to Indians.  So you can imagine what it was like yesterday when the mercury climbed in New Delhi to 111 degrees F (or 44C).  As I moved from meeting to meeting (wearing a suit and tie, of course), my hosts bombarded me with warnings and advice.  “Very dangerous weather, sir.  Very injurious to your health, sir.  Please be hydrating regularly, sir”.  To be fair to the Indians I met, and at the risk of reinforcing every stereotype you have about Brits, it was seriously hot.  111F isn’t a negligible increase on say 100F.  It turns an uncomfortably hot day into an unbearable one especially if, as was the case yesterday, a breeze blows and causes your face to feel like it’s being fried.

I was reminded of an August day in Riyadh more than thirty years ago.  No one thought to warn me, a rookie when it came to summers in the Middle East, to cover my hand when opening the door of my car which had been left standing all day in temperatures of +45 degrees C.  An immediate visit to the doctor’s office, days of ointments, bandages, and  painkillers – that wasn’t a mistake I made again.  But look on the bright side.  It gave me an anecdote to tell for years ahead and confirm all those prejudices about Brits and the weather.