Beat the heat this summer

“That shirt sir, is fine linen. And it is light and absorbent. Should be just the thing for this heat”

And so you fall for the spiel and buy the damn thing from the smart sales guy in the swanky store which promises you relief from the Mumbai heat.

After all it’s Linen. Or it’s 100% cotton. Or has a light breezy weave. And so it ought to work.

But it doesn’t.

Not that it’s entirely its fault. After all the garment was designed for ideal test conditions. And not commuting in the Indian summer.

It is after you get into a train with the thing on that you realize that there’s not much space for it to do its climate control thing. And that it’s super absorbent status means that you’re soaking up perspiration from the people around you in the train as well.

Which is not exactly a very comforting thought to have lingering in your mind for the rest of the day at work.

And so you tolerate the shirt’s presence on your back till you can get home, rip it off and dump it into the machine.

And then you realize that a cold shower is the only thing that offers any respite from this heat, however brief.

But all this is after you kick yourself for falling for marketing gibberish and glossy ad copy.

Again.