Winter146;s Tale

TWO worn blankets. That was all 40-year-old Muzaffar had between the cold and himself and his four children. He finally gave up the fight on...

TWO worn blankets. That was all 40-year-old Muzaffar had between the cold and himself and his four children. He finally gave up the fight on January 22, when Lucknow recorded a minimum temperature of 1.6 degrees C, the lowest since 1964.

With Muzaffar, a native of Unnao district who lived in a hut in Sadatgunj in Lucknow, the death toll in the cold wave currently sweeping the state touched 749. According to some estimates, there have been 12-15 deaths every day since January 8. With the spell expected to last till January 26, the toll can only climb higher.

According to state meteorological director R K Verma, 8216;8216;Icy winds have formed a pool overhead, with the centre near Lucknow. The cold will continue to be severe as long as the pool is present and there are no signs of it diffusing now.8217;8217;

While the entire state is having a bad time, Kanpur is probably the worst off, with the mercury dipping below zero twice in the last fortnight. On the night of January 10, and again on January 21, the Chandra Shekhar Azad University observatory at Kanpur recorded a minimum temperature of -1 degree C. In fact, Kanpur is currently colder than Shimla and Srinagar.

Because of the adverse weather conditions, a majority of trains are routinely cancelled, and the ones that are running, are late by several hours. Schools and colleges have been closed till January 27, and attendance in offices is down to almost half. A resident of the Souterganj area of Kanpur says that a thick fog covers the city the entire day, making normal movement impossible.

Weathermen say there is no scientific reason for the bitter winter Kanpur is facing, except for the 8216;8216;pool of icy winds8217;8217;. While the affluent try to keep the cold at bay with blower-heaters and wood charcoal, the poor make do with streetside fires made up of tyres, polythene bags, twigs and even planks ripped out from roadside stalls.

Away from the urban pockets, in rural Kanpur, conversation centres around survival 8212; of humans as much as the local agricultural crop. 8216;8216;Farmers here sow potatoes in nearly 41 thousand hectares, but most of them have resigned themselves to losing their crop,8217;8217; says Mannu Singh, a resident of Nyamatpur village in Farrukhabad, the country8217;s potato bowl. 8216;8216;About 75 per cent of the crop will be lost.8217;8217;

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Though strong winds over the past couple of days have dispersed the fog to some extent, met officials warn that there will be no respite from the intense cold till it rains. The sun, it seems, will take its time to emerge again.