Hail! Summer! Poem by AtreyaSarma Uppaluri

Like how Sania Mirza is hot stuff
Like how the Bollywood Khans
are hot tinsel property
Like how Vishy is the hot favourite
on the squared board
Like how ice creams
go like hot cakes
in the hotter days
The summer season is as ‘cool’
as all this roll call of honour.

So let’s be as cool as a cucumber
And play it cool while it is proverbially hot.

The aroma of summer is irresistible
With white cool jasmines
Wafting their lulling fragrance all around.

It’s the season significant
For the mouth-teasing mango pickles
Of countless compositions
That tempt you to relish them year round.

Summer is unique for that unique king of fruits -
Mango – oh what a variety! – how many tastes!
To give you a heavenly feast of palatal delights
With added bonus of melons and palm kernels
And naturally cooled water in the earthenware vases
Though everyone of you have the comforts of fridge!

Summers are the haven for the long holiday mood
Served well by summer specials of buses and trains.

Summers enhance the beauty and demand
Of hill stations and seaside resorts
Half the day you can relax splashing yourself
With the rich spray of the cool-blue swimming pools
Or of the untamed water bodies
With their pristine earthen lining
Soft to the feet and healing to the body.

Lie down in the open in your backyard or on your terrace
And look up at the clear firmament of starry nights
Which take you out of your diurnal weariness
Into a soothing and eerie dreamland of restful ease.

No doubt summers are
Scorching hot
Burning hot
Blazing hot,
Scalding hot
Heat only proves the gold
So summer brings out the best in you.

Water evaporates from everywhere
To go up and kiss the Sun in gratitude
For the bounties of the glimmering summer.
Sweat goes out of our sieved skins
Leaving us clean with solid merit behind.

Who says summer is torrid and harming
When it is full of boons so charming!
It’s certainly hot and enervating
But you know scores of ways
To beat the heat
And enjoy its treat
Like at any cool retreat –
Hand fans, electric fans,
Coolers and AC
Though the khus-khus is the best of all
With its old world charm.

And don’t say
Summertime is harsh and heartless.
It does get you interim relief
With its sudden and sporadic showers.

Summery skies suck up all water into their cloudy terrain
Only to repay with interest through monsoons, quite soon.

Summer gives you longer days
And so more heat and more light
An energiser, a stimulant of life
Pleasing to all the senses five …and more.

Like humans, seasons have their own moods
So don’t isolate
And blast summer for its fatal heat waves.
Its siblings, the winter and the rains, are no less furious
With their blood freezing cold waves and hellish downpours!

So men and women of wisdom and pride!
Be practical, and take the seasons in your stride
You’ll have more blessings than curses to ride.

[May 07,2009: : Hyderabad - 500 056]