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BIG FREEZE: I'll never forget my baptism on the ice
Postgraduate Siva Sankar, aged 40, has left behind the heat of Hyderabad in southern India to study journalism in Sheffield. Here he writes of his delight at experiencing snow for the first time in his life.
IT DOESN'T snow in Sheffield anymore, they said.
It used to snow, but that was a long time ago, they said. When I - a senior postgraduate student from India - heard that last September, I felt a tinge of sadness.
I had never experienced snow in real life before, and had seen snow only in romantic scenes on the silver screen.
Until Monday, that is. I shall always remember the day, and Sheffield, for the rest of my life.
Nothing prepared me for the kind of experience the day afforded me - not the pre-departure British Council briefings in Mumbai, not the university brochures, not the archives of weather patterns of the recent past I had researched before coming to the UK.
All of them did sensitise me to the prospect of cold weather. But nothing can match the real-life experience. As it turned out, it was a kind of baptism by ice. The heaviest, hardest snowfall in 18 years, no less. I couldn't have asked for more.
I will remember forever the moment I woke, drew apart the curtains of my room, and found the green of the lawn of Broomgrove Hall on Broomgrove Road replaced by a pure white sheet.
I had to rub my eyes in disbelief.
The sheer whiteness of snow! Is snow always this white? Whiter than the whitest lather? It might sound silly to you when you read this, but I had never before realised the beauty of white until I saw the snow in Sheffield. Its sheer abundance filled my heart with joy.
I saw college kids sliding happily down the newly-white slopes behind Sheffield railway station. There were commuters dragging their trolley suitcases stuck in the snow on the steep incline of Howard Street.
As the snow continued to flutter down from the skies women did not bother to cover their heads or unfurl their umbrellas - instead, they allowed the free-falling flakes to kiss and rest on their flowing tresses.
I discovered the resilience of trees, their leaves especially. As the snow on them kept growing, they simply stood still, not protesting, but enduring, until the weight of snow gave way and fell to the ground with a thump. But the leaves and the trees stood, ready to bear another fresh load.
Where had all the birds gone? There was no bird song, nor chirping, but I found a couple of pigeons going about their usual chore of picking food from the soil, totally unmindful of falling snow and vast stretches of icy white all around.
Slanting rooftops suddenly appeared to be coated in super-white paint. Snow settled in mysterious patterns. At the junction of Arundel Gate, opposite TJ Hughes, the snow neatly formed a brickwall-like design.
Frantic wireless radio messages inside city bus services kept drivers abreast of traffic snarls across the city. Tension-filled commuters hoped against hope they would reach their destinations in time. But, when jams proved longer than expected, youngsters and the not-so-young alighted, relishing the prospect of being out in the snow-covered open again.
University boys and girls squared up for snowball fights.
I had never realised snowballs could be quite so dense and solid, and don't melt away in a jiffy.
And that feeling under my feet - smoothly, silently sinking into one-foot-deep evening snow with no resistance, so hollow, so crisp, yet so velvety. I won't forget that in a hurry.
It wasn't as freezing as I had imagined. I walked a street for a while to find out how much snow would fall upon me. Within two minutes, my shoulder bag was laden with a one-inch coating.
And snow melts slowly, and turns into a soggy, brown mush, yet not slippery. Strange! And wonderful.
Little did I imagine my first experience of snow would be so remarkable and memorable.
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Weather for Sheffield
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: -3 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -0 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
