It was hot today.
This morning, my wife and kid cajoled me into attending a a tamboon for our small gathering of 15 or so houses (not quite a village). It was held outside in the
bocce ball court under two large tents and attended by about 50 people and six monks from a nearby temple. It was a broiler, made only tolerable by several large fans placed throughout.
The food was catered by a decent local restaurant, so I suffered in silence as the monks jabbered on for more than an hour
hummana, humana, humana. I was sweating like a proper jock anticipating a good lunch.
At one point, the chanting stopped and one monk got up to offer the faithful a respite from the heat with a sprinkling of holy water. Something like this.
I'm not Buddhist, but I thanked the Lord for that splash. As he worked his way around the crowd, he drew up an extra helping of water to reach a couple people sitting in the back next to the stereo/PA system electronics. He flung his load out with a delivery that would make Nolan Ryan proud. Seconds later there was a loud hiss and then a thunderous POP from the electronics gear. The ear-splitting
hummana hummana became a whisper. A child cried. And most importantly, all nine fans began winding down -- starved of power. The idle monks immediately chimed in to increase the volume as I looked around in disbelief. They weren't really going to continue on with this, were they? They were. I was drenched within five minutes; it had to be near 45. It occurred to me that no lunch on the planet would be worth sitting there for another hour. The monks droned on for another 10 minutes and made their exit barely touching the food that had been prepared for them. I made my excuses and walked home.
It was hot today.
My saintly wife brought me a doggy bag and thanked me for my "effort."