The times they are a-tortuous

Mad, mad world: Opening our phones in the morning only negates whatever rest we may have had during the night because the relentless onslaught of bad news is upon us again. — Others

IS it the weather that can’t seem to decide whether it is going to be wet or dry? Either way it is so hot that you enter a room with closed windows and immediately feel that you’ve accidentally been shoved into an oven. Or you take a shower to wash off sweat and cool down, only to emerge and start perspiring again.

Whatever it is, what I feel is just plain exhausted. If there are still people who do not believe in climate change, they can go out and lie in the sun and burn for all I care. Or drown in some over-filled drain that can’t cope with the day’s deluge. If you’re in the mood for some depressing imaginings of what a climate- ravaged society might look like, read Megha Majumdar’s book A Guardian and a Thief. It tells the tale of a near-future Kolkata where people are desperate to escape the starvation and misery caused by extreme weather. It’s sobering.