What a day I had today!! The monsoon has finally arrived in Bombay, and how! It started raining today at 12:30 or so, and hasn’t stopped till now! It’s not pouring cats and dogs, but elephants, rhinos, hippos (you get my point? :D)!
Yesterday on the radio I had heard that Birdy’s, a pastry shop close to home, was having a chocolate festival, and the announcer reeled out a list of yummy sounding desserts such as chocolate cheesecake, chocolate chiffon pie and chocolate mud pie! I made up my mind that the next day (i.e. today) I would go and buy some delicious pastries for Grans, my brother, and of course moi!
But as I was sitting in class, studying Rorsharch’s Inkblot Test, I kept on glancing uneasily at the rapidly darkening sky. It was raining quite heavily when I started off for home. I ran to the station and prayed that the tracks wouldn’t be flooded and that I would get home without getting thoroughly drenched. Then began the battle between my will and Birdy’s pastry shop! Will said, “Go home before you get stranded somewhere!” Birdy’s exclaimed elatedly, “Chocolate festival! Chocolate festival!” No prizes for guessing who won out in the end!
So from the station I made my way to Birdy’s. Ankle high water covered the roads leading to the shop. I thought, “Not bad! All I’ll have to do is change out of my pants once I get home.” But as I neared the shop, the water level seemed to have risen by a couple of inches. At last I got to Birdy’s and as soon as I landed there, my cell began to blast “Summer of ‘69”! It was Grans, and she was hysterical! “Where are you? There is water everywhere! The footpaths are completely flooded! Come home soon!” I was like, “Ok, ok! Just tell me if you want a pineapple or chocolate pastry.” Grans was speechless for a few seconds (and that’s a feat in itself!) then she blasted off, “Pastry? PASTRY?!! Get home at once! And get me a pineapple!” The guy who was waiting to take my order smiled cheekily and said, “So it’ll be a pineapple pastry miss?” The world is full of comedians!
Anyway, I bought the pineapple pastry for Grans and some chocolate delectables for my brother and myself. When I stepped out of Birdy’s the landscape out side had changed considerably! In fact, there was no ‘land’ to be seen anywhere at all! There was water everywhere as far as the eye can see! I was about 10 minutes away from home and knew that no taxi would be willing to come for such a short distance; so feeling very adventurous I waded on to the footpath! As I treaded carefully (didn’t want to fall into some open gutter!) the water level rose and rose and then rose some more, till it reached my knees!
The walk that usually takes only 10 minutes seemed to take forever! What made it worse was that I was walking in the direction opposite to the current of the fast flowing water. Bits of plastic, leaves and twigs would get entangled with my feet every so often, making me yelp in fright!
As I looked into the rain hazed distance I couldn’t see a single person on the footpath. That was when I noticed that most people were walking on the road, which was not covered with as much water. Feeling like a total idiot, I made like a penguin towards the road!
But the worse (or best, if you like such things) was yet to come. The intersection near my building was flooded with water, which came almost up to my waist. The vehicles were moving slowly, and I had to stand in this nearly waist high water for a few minutes, waiting to cross, in which time I was almost knocked over by a mini tsunami created by a bus! Now I was covered from head to toe in muddy brown water, clutching on to my umbrella and pastry package!
I was just thankful that mine is a corner building and after a few more minutes of thrashing around I was on, not so dry, but stable ground at last! I could have kissed it!
Now I’m nice and dry, and can see the hilarity of it all!
It’s still continuing to pour, with no hopes of stopping, ever! There are quite a few people outside splashing around in the water, having a really good time! I can hear their shrieks of delight through the closed doors!
I’ve even taken some pictures from my balcony, which I’ve displayed here. They look a bit blurred due to the rain. It may look like I live right on the banks of a lake, but that happens only once or twice a year!
Yesterday on the radio I had heard that Birdy’s, a pastry shop close to home, was having a chocolate festival, and the announcer reeled out a list of yummy sounding desserts such as chocolate cheesecake, chocolate chiffon pie and chocolate mud pie! I made up my mind that the next day (i.e. today) I would go and buy some delicious pastries for Grans, my brother, and of course moi!
But as I was sitting in class, studying Rorsharch’s Inkblot Test, I kept on glancing uneasily at the rapidly darkening sky. It was raining quite heavily when I started off for home. I ran to the station and prayed that the tracks wouldn’t be flooded and that I would get home without getting thoroughly drenched. Then began the battle between my will and Birdy’s pastry shop! Will said, “Go home before you get stranded somewhere!” Birdy’s exclaimed elatedly, “Chocolate festival! Chocolate festival!” No prizes for guessing who won out in the end!
So from the station I made my way to Birdy’s. Ankle high water covered the roads leading to the shop. I thought, “Not bad! All I’ll have to do is change out of my pants once I get home.” But as I neared the shop, the water level seemed to have risen by a couple of inches. At last I got to Birdy’s and as soon as I landed there, my cell began to blast “Summer of ‘69”! It was Grans, and she was hysterical! “Where are you? There is water everywhere! The footpaths are completely flooded! Come home soon!” I was like, “Ok, ok! Just tell me if you want a pineapple or chocolate pastry.” Grans was speechless for a few seconds (and that’s a feat in itself!) then she blasted off, “Pastry? PASTRY?!! Get home at once! And get me a pineapple!” The guy who was waiting to take my order smiled cheekily and said, “So it’ll be a pineapple pastry miss?” The world is full of comedians!
Anyway, I bought the pineapple pastry for Grans and some chocolate delectables for my brother and myself. When I stepped out of Birdy’s the landscape out side had changed considerably! In fact, there was no ‘land’ to be seen anywhere at all! There was water everywhere as far as the eye can see! I was about 10 minutes away from home and knew that no taxi would be willing to come for such a short distance; so feeling very adventurous I waded on to the footpath! As I treaded carefully (didn’t want to fall into some open gutter!) the water level rose and rose and then rose some more, till it reached my knees!
The walk that usually takes only 10 minutes seemed to take forever! What made it worse was that I was walking in the direction opposite to the current of the fast flowing water. Bits of plastic, leaves and twigs would get entangled with my feet every so often, making me yelp in fright!
As I looked into the rain hazed distance I couldn’t see a single person on the footpath. That was when I noticed that most people were walking on the road, which was not covered with as much water. Feeling like a total idiot, I made like a penguin towards the road!
But the worse (or best, if you like such things) was yet to come. The intersection near my building was flooded with water, which came almost up to my waist. The vehicles were moving slowly, and I had to stand in this nearly waist high water for a few minutes, waiting to cross, in which time I was almost knocked over by a mini tsunami created by a bus! Now I was covered from head to toe in muddy brown water, clutching on to my umbrella and pastry package!
I was just thankful that mine is a corner building and after a few more minutes of thrashing around I was on, not so dry, but stable ground at last! I could have kissed it!
Now I’m nice and dry, and can see the hilarity of it all!
It’s still continuing to pour, with no hopes of stopping, ever! There are quite a few people outside splashing around in the water, having a really good time! I can hear their shrieks of delight through the closed doors!
I’ve even taken some pictures from my balcony, which I’ve displayed here. They look a bit blurred due to the rain. It may look like I live right on the banks of a lake, but that happens only once or twice a year!
2 comments:
Nice details par yun akele akele khana achchi baat nahin :)
Just now I was telling one of my blog frens that mumbaiwallahs must be writting abt their today's adventure in rain ! So first went to Puneet's blog & found nothing but the second mumbaite ne dissapoint nahin kiya! :)
chalo aap to pahunch gaye theek thaak
hmmmmm they r so many still stranded! Hope this rain ends soon
Hey Manish! Akele, aklele kahaan? I got pastries for my brotehr and grandmother too na? :)
There are still so many people stranded on the roads still! My brother's also stranded at his office. A cousin of mine took 18 hours just to reach home!
Hey goodwill hunting, maybe you should wade through knee high water and get your own pastries!! Hehe! :D
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