While children in Toronto and New- foundland go to  school at temperatures ranging from 20 to 29 degrees Celsius, children in India are made to stay at home when the temperature touches plus 2 degree status. Children in Toronto enjoy their weekends outdoors building snowmen and sliding on the freezing sidewalks while Indian children are huddled inside at a temperature which is almost 30 degrees higher. The Government of India granted Indian schoolchildren an extended winter holiday, as it has been doing in the last few years during the month of January. Not only this, as many as 1,500 people died this winter as the temperature touched an all-time low. However, it is ironic yet true that in India people die in all weathers—when it is too cold, when it is too hot, when it rains a lot and floods the villages and nearby areas and also when it is spring time. Sometimes, I get a feeling that in India, people just need an excuse to die and weather plays a part, of course. But what has to be understood is that people are dying not because the weather is too hot or cold, but because the people are so poor that they cannot afford woollen clothing. Their houses are open from all sides and just cannot be heated. There was a time when Indian homes used to remain heated with small ovens. But now, with coal being scanty, everything is dependent on power, which too is becoming scanty. Even well-off Indians cannot afford to have their houses heated at all times nor can they run small heaters at all times as power always plays truant when needed the most. The demand for power is increasing every year and the government has never been able to meet the requirement. As the population goes up, so does the demand for power and with new electronic gadgets becoming cheaper by the day in India, more power is needed. Not many would believe this but it is a fact that electronic gadgets are much cheaper in India than they are in any other developing country. With the standard of urban people going up, more and more gadgets are making it into the homes of the wealthy few, who can afford to live in luxury at the cost of poverty-stricken people who just need a few woollens to keep them warm in the harsh winters. Undoubtedly, it is due to starvation leading to malnutrition and chronic diseases which weakens the immune system and people therefore freeze to death even faster. Come summer, the high temperatures again cause dehydration and water becomes scarce leading to drought in poverty-stricken areas of east Indian States like Orissa and Assam. Then it is time for the rain gods to shower their blessings in the form of floods which sweep the population along with their cattle and whatever little they can boast of in the form of belongings. And when it is spring time, it is time for the now infamous dengue mosquito to make its presence felt and attack and kill those who do not have antibodies in their bodies to fight it. Viral fever can come and go at any time of the year leaving a trail of death, mainly children, behind. While poor people living on the verge ofstarvation shiver to death, politicians fight over territories andlook for excuses to be able to answer the press when hounded by them.