Saskatoon musician recalls India heat wave

Nissen said when he first arrived, the weather was brisk and he was wearing a sweater. Locals warned him about the impending heat and he purposely avoided traveling to the worst-hit areas of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states.

Despite avoiding the southeast part of India, Nissen said the heat reached 46 C in the areas around New Delhi and Varanasi.

“Everything just radiates the heat. You think you can find some shade and you sit on the step or something and it’s like you are sitting on a hot stone. Like something you could cook food on,” Nissen said.

Nissen spend a good amount of time in air conditioning and drank plenty of fluids during the heat wave. When he travelled in the rickshaw, he said the breeze kept him cool until the driver stopped.

“It’s like you’re standing in front of an oven door. Whenever they stop, it’s like you’re opening that oven door and all that heat escapes and hits you,” he described.

The broiling heat didn’t have the locals complaining.

“The Indian people are so resilient. They weren’t really talking about it. It was just another summer. In the winter they were talking about how hot it will get in the summer but once it did get that hot, there wasn’t a lot of complaining.”

Nissen is currently living in Toronto but is returning to Saskatoon to play at the Saskatchewan Jazz Fest in a few weeks.

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by Karin Yeske

Saskatoon musician recalls India heat wave

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