Monday, June 25, 2007

Mumbai Rain

Yes. It has been raining; the skies are full of clouds of various hues tones and shades, with the sun playing hide and seek with the clouds creating an amazing environment and ambience. The pitter patter of rain on the leaves, window eaves turns into a nice drumming sound accompanied by an occasional chirp of birds, the tolling bells in the temple early in the morning. Later during the day, symphony gets marred by a cacophony of engine noise, sudden brakes, blaring horns only to quiten down as rain increases.

So far you notice, I have been looking up and not looking down or not trying to go through the city. The moment you step of the house, it becomes a different story; Here Streets start getting water logged after 5 minutes of drizzle, and it has been raining for the entire weekend. The uneven road with all it potholes and loads of garbage is now filled with muddy water which swirls as it fights with flotsam and jetsam to go down the drain. Standing on the road with an open umbrella in hand, fighting to keep it open in the wind, wondering whether to hold it up to avoid getting wet in the rain or to use it as shield against getting drenched in the shower of muddy dirty water that the racing rickshaw / maruti throws up as the driver tries to demonstrate his abilities as a cross country racer.

Any way by keeping an additional outfit in the bag / at office and keeping a buffer of couple of hours if you venture out and focus more upwards then downwards then you do encounter some pleasant moments and can get lyrical like the Hindi movie heroes and heroines and sing songs about how beautiful is the rain after the dust and the heat on broad fiery streets in the narrow lanes, how beautiful is the rain.

So dear friend worry not, things are not as bad as they are in Andhra Pradesh, we are still in a good place. We are still enjoying the rains. For how long I can not predict but will keep having fun as long as we can; and over the week end look forward to curling up in the blanket with piping hot chai, some hot bhajiyas and pakoras along piping hot Sheera and either a good book or a great DVD.

Hope you like the plan… and are reassured by it.