In late 1940's in city of Vadodara (western India).

And nobody had A/C! How the heck did we survive?

My friend was born in India, and 'removed' to 'Pakistan' when TPTB forced Muslims out; he's here now, and I still can't imagine how he and they survived.

I remember my parents hanging a curtain in the door which was access door to outside. The curtain was made of fine roots of some plant and had a pleasant smell. The curtain would be kept moist by spraying water on it. As the breeze from outside passed through the curtain, it cooled off from evaporating water.
The whole family spent afternoons inside, in the curtain room.

Main thing to avoid heat-strokes was to wear hats to protect heat from the sun.
My mother made me wear that safari hat made from cork material. I hated it.
But looking back, it prevented sun-strokes walking to school few miles away.

who said BREEZES were/are SO important!

And I've recently noticed peoples' use of hats to protect from the sun.

my parents did have a table fan and electricity so the fan was used to blow air through the root curtain.

But the nights in summer were amazing. We all slept on the flat terrace roof in summer, because the strong breezes were always present. And temps dropped quite a bit at night. Just like in Arizona desert. Thank you elleng for your comments.