Tuesday 3 June 2008

Monsoon blues


Its hot and I want it to rain. Who loves June anyway?
Well, think again.

Monsoon in this city is a weird thingy
-some guy I know.


A couple of years back, in school, Ruby, my chemistry teachie, called it a day.

Smack in the middle of the monsoon, it wasn't unusual to see School Road completely drowned. The common man from School trying to reach home before dark(read: me) would be left with two alternatives, he either take the long walk to the bus stop, or seek refuge from the rain under a tree or inside a shop or the ice cream parlour opposite school, where they conveniently turned off thea air conditioners in that stupid humidity, so you would get wet anyway.

Being sort of an experienced campaigner, I chose the former. Trudging along the alleys trying to avoid the puddles of mud, a friend of mine, Karthik Murali, frowned.
"The Heavens must be really pissed with us."
"Do They have to piss this hard?"

Hordes of people walked about, all armed with umbrellas, and we'd try and take peeks inside the pink ones. Trying to remember the last time I carried an umbrella, I made my way through the narrow labyrinth of dry road there was, and was then on my own in the bus stop, my shoes crunching the soft mud underneath me. I was all alone from here. Muttering silent curses to the so-called-friends who ditched me, I waited for the 41D, to take me home to civilization. I also did not want to miss The Simpsons at six, I think.

45 minutes, a dozen swears, a few toppled trees and a motorcycle accident later, the big green monster finally came, humanity pouring out of its every orifice. I attached a couple of limbs firmly to it, one to a handle and the other to the last step of the footboard, and it pulled me along. I got drenched, motorists from behind were shouting at me, and the humongous bag which I was carrying brushing against every tamil movie poster on the buildings. I reached home and surveyed the damage done : the top of all my books were blue, the little Chinese mp3 player I had stopped working, plus a few bruises on my elbow.

Life doesn't get any better I guess.