Sunday, September 26, 2010

A Wet Evening in Bangalore

Yesterday, 24th September, 2010, the sky broke down on Bangalore and I was right there from the beginning till almost the end. What an evening when it felt like flood in Bangalore. The clock was ticking 6 PM and one of my colleagues came in and said "Lets leave early today". I also made my mind as I was getting a free lift from HSR Layout (where my office is) to the Silk Board Bridge where I catch my bus to Majestic (the central bus station in Bangalore). We left in 10-15 minutes and reached the Silk Board by 6:30-35. I was waiting for my Volvo (the AC buses that started in Bangalore some time ago) as there was immense traffic in front of me. It already started drizzling by that time which I ignored casually.

After waiting for round 15 minutes I got a bus which luckily was not very crowed and I managed to get a seat in sometime. The bus was moving very slowly as the traffic was growing.
By now it had started raining a little heavy and suddenly it just started pouring. I was enjoying the scene outside my window as the heat for some days had really taken a toll on me. So I was happy to see this downpour as a blessing in disguise. The commotion in the bus was a scene to look at. There were people rushing in and after some time the driving stopped opening the door. It had started raining cats and dogs by now or rather would stay it was raining dinosaurs and nothing was visible from the window. Wondering if I could get a viper in front of my window like the driver has one before his.

Even though the road got all water logged, the traffic was still there. So we slowly moved towards Majestic as I tried to gape out of the window. People also got busy with their conversations and small naps as not many people had the hurry to get down. I was feeling a little cold as the AC fan was right on me and was going full blast. We had almost been travelling for an hour now and neither the bus nor the rain had stopped. There was an old lady in the bus who could not get a seat and sat on the step instead. It was after another girl at the front end of the bus gave a seat to her and herself shared a seat with another girl. It was nice to see such a respectable and helping gesture. At last our bus reached Majestic and it was still raining! Gosh! the entire bus stand was almost empty even  though it was just 8 in the evening.

Now I had to take another bus to Rajajinagar, where I stay and I really get confused with the bus numbers. I asked all the buses standing at my stop but none went through my route. Finally two girls offered to help me with my bus...lucky me! and yes they did as they said. They directed me to my bus which got filled up the moment I sat down on the wet seat. It was still raining with the same force. I reached my destination in some 15 mins though I was unable to recognize the way as the roads were completely empty because of the rain. Finally when I got down I unfolded my umbrella first time this monsoon and started walking towards my house. A local guy managed to pursue to me to give him a little shelter under my umbrella and I gladly did so.

Once I reached home I was amazed to see a power failure or rather load-shedding in only the lane where I stay. The rest of the city was glowing pretty bright. But I convinced myself to not bother much and entered my dark room keeping my steps carefully. That was all about my wet evening where entire Bangalore got wet and me not much. I had never liked the rains so much earlier but this rainy evening really gave immense pleasure as the cool winds had taken out all my tiredness and made me a fan of the rains.

At night when I slept I remembered that childhood poem:

"Rain, rain, go away,
Come again some other day,
Little Johnny wants to play.

Rain, rain, go to Spain,
Never show your face again."

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