By IANS
Mumbai : A nail-biting cold wave is making the country’s financial capital – Mumbai – shiver. The minimum temperature in the city dipped to a season’s low of 8.5 degrees Celsius Friday.
“This is the lowest-ever temperature recorded in the city for the month of February,” said K. Sathi Devi, director of weather bureau here.
The minimum temperature recorded Friday at Colaba, in south Mumbai, was 13.4 degrees Celsius, while at Santacruz in north Mumbai it was 8.5 degrees Celsius. This is the coldest ever in the city of stars in the past 40 years. But the record low is 7.4 on Jan 22, 1962.
“The cold wave is expected to continue for at least another two-three days (till Sunday),” Sathi Devi told IANS.
In Mumbai, the roads suddenly wore a deserted look as people preferred to stay indoors to keep warm.
“I was supposed to go out for an evening jog but did not feel like leaving home due to the chilly winds blowing. It’s almost freezing,” said Riddhi Oza, an executive working for a multinational company in Oshiwara, north Mumbai.
Echoing similar sentiments, Kinnari Trivedi, a student from K.C. College of management, said: “I just don’t feel like getting out of my quilt. I just love to sip hot tea and watch TV. Outside, its simply unbearably cold.”
Even doctors in Mumbai are seeing a sudden rush of patients complaining of fever, cough and cold.
“In the past few days, there has been a sharp increase in viral infections and flu,” said Himanshu Modi, a general physician practicing at Kandivali, an upmarket northwestern suburb.
Hiren Doshi, a consulting paediatrician, said there are long queues at his private clinic.
“There has been a sudden rise in cough and cold and even chicken-pox in past one week,” Doshi told IANS.
“My thee-year old son, Gopinath, has not gone to school since last Monday due to fever and cold,” said Kshama Acharya, a homemaker.
Slum dwellers are the worst hit with little or no protection from the weather and the winds lashing the city since Thursday.
They huddled around small bonfires and attempted to warm themselves.
Similarly, the nightlife for which the city is renowned has practically come to a standstill.
“No more late-night shows, eating out or wild parties – at least till the cold waves subsides,” said Annie Mathai, a regular partygoer and weekend pub-crawler from Juhu.