While Perth goes through an almost record breaking heat wave, I’m reminded of the words spoken by my teacher’s professor in Chennai, over sixty years ago.
It was a baking hot day, in the middle of Summer, and if you’ve been to Chennai you’ll know the weather there is either hot, hotter or hottest. Anyway, it was one of the hottest days on record and all the boys were complaining, in the classroom. The professor walked in and saw them fussing about. He didn’t say a word.
After a minute, or so, he asked the boys to follow him. He marched them out to the open quadrangle. It was scorching; their feet felt like they were blistering through their shoes.
There, in the middle of the open quadrangle, the professor held up his arms and spoke these immortal words:
“Boys, isn’t this a beautiful Summer?”… [pause]
“The beauty of the Summer is, its heat. The beauty of the Winter is, its biting cold. The beauty of the monsoon is, it must pour and pour and pour… [pause]
The beauty of the white man is, his white skin. The beauty of the black man is, his shiny black skin… But, the black man wants to be fair, the white man wants to be tanned!… You want the monsoon to be dry, and the Winter to be warm… [pause]
The beauty of the summer is, its HEAT.”
About Meredith Forder
