brent: and now we join our india correspondent sonia phalnikar who joins us on the phone. a, how are the government workers dealing with this? sonia: i was in the capital delhi and that city is just really in the grip of a heat wave. it was near 46 degrees celsius so you can imagine, it was really sawn alike -- sauna-like conditions there. people cut electricity for about 10 hours a day with the grid struggling to provide electricity. many places have borne the brunt of the heat, and many victims there are neighbors and construction workers. they are unable to stop working and their families depend on their daily wages. the state has issued heat alerts advising people to stay indoors and drink plenty of fluids, but in many places, local services are simply overwhelmed. we have to remember that india is no stranger to heat waves, it is a tropical country, and hundreds of people mainly from the poorest sections of society die in the hundreds every year. that is why the media has been very critical of the response of the government so far. despite the predictable and periodic