Varanasi, India: India’s gruelling heatwave is set to abate soon but that was no consolation to housewife Bindwasvini Devi, one of the millions braving Saturday’s scorching sun to vote in the final day of national elections.
Crowds lined up early outside polling booths to beat the heat in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, where a week of unbearable temperatures has brought daily life to a standstill.
With temperatures peaking at 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit) in the afternoon, many were keen to dispense with their democratic duty as soon as possible and return home to bunker down until the heat recedes.
“It made a lot more sense to be out before the sun gets stronger,” Devi, 42, told AFP from outside a booth in her neighbourhood soon after polls opened, admitting even at that early hour that the heat was taking a toll.
“The last few days have been very tough and we’ve tried to stay hydrated and avoided going out as much as possible.”
Even in the morning hours, polling officials and voters alike had faces coated in a sheen of sweat.
Many queueing up grumbled among themselves over long wait times outdoors and in corridors without overhead fans or air conditioning.
The ancient city of Varanasi is the spiritual capital of the Hindu faith, where Indians bring their deceased loved ones for funeral rites at crematoriums lining the banks of the Ganges river.
Most of the year, it is a thriving religious centre that hosts pilgrims visiting temples, religious processions through ancient alleyways, and a regular stream of Western tourists in search of enlightenment.
But by midday, streets and polling stations were all but deserted as the city’s two-million-odd residents retreated from yet another day of blazing heat.