Thoughts of a project manager/husband/father/nature lover/ traveler
Captured this today in the evening. The skies filled with monsoon clouds. The fresh smell of the mud. The street vendors busy making onion pakodas and bhajji’s. The kids in the ground welcoming the rain with joyous screams. The excited chirping of the birds, awaiting the first drops of rain from the sky. The hot Earth awaiting for the first drops of rain to cool it down. The season of monsoon and grey skies is here.
Mumbai looks beautiful in the rains.
It all started this morning at around 3-4am. I got up at around at 7 am and saw the sky was grey as ever and it was steadily pouring. At around 8:15am, my brother called saying that the trains are not working and he is coming home. He had left for college early in the morning only to go two thirds of the distance and then return home wet. My colleague was supposed to fly down to Mumbai today morning and she had to cancel her flight. She was on the call with me all through out. I told her that the trains are not working but so far nothing else seems to be effected. Slowly the reports started to come by and certain low lying areas were flooded. My bro was back home and he said lets go to the nearby mall and catch the 10am show. I was like sure. We left our houses only to be surrounded by knee deep water in our area. We decided to watch Awarapan (the movie sucked). After the interval the electricity went off and so after waiting a while, we got our refunded for the movie. In a wa, I feel lucky.. i got to watch half the movie and got paid full money back. While returning we decided to walk through the effected areas to get the first hand view of how bad the things were. What we saw, was something which was very different. Today being saturday, most people had decided to stay home and once the street were flooded almost every one was down enjoying the rains. I guess this only happens in Bombay. Streets had turned into open rivers. There were kids, men, women, husbands, wives, grandmom, grandpa’s all out in the rain enjoying the water filled streets. Some people used to the street to play cricket. It was a festive atmosphere all throught out. The chaiwalas (tea vendors), bhajiawalas did brisk business today. We could see people standing outside at the local eatery grabbing a bite of the hot samosas and bhajias. Inspite of all the fun and frolic, I do feel sad for the people whose houses were filled up with water and also for poor who had basically nothing but a plastic roof on their heads. I saw one man just holding his head and sitting in his little hut with water all around. It is true when a calamity happens, the people who get affected the most are going to be poor.
I took some pictures while we were out in the rain. I forgot to change the resolution and thus the images may appear grainy.
Well it is no longer raining here.. i wish it rains like it rains in Mumbai. Here it rains for 10 mins and then stops. I don’t understand what the funda is. Locals say that it will start pouring cats and dogs once we get into July. So now I am waiting for that. In the meanwhile, the fan in my room does not work, so everyday I lift the mattress, move it to the living room and sleep there. The fan guy was supposed to get here yesterday, but I am not sure if he had come or no, because i was away in the office recruiting people. Life in the office has become very hectic. I dont know how many things I can manage at the same time. I have new people who are undergoing training, I am getting more people on the board, plus there is regular work and then there is added work in terms of reports and etc. Thus, I have had no time for practically anything else. To be honest, I am enjoying this kind of pressure. Tonight I am hoping I will get the much needed break. I am looking fwd to fly to Mumbai tonight and take a break for 2 days, before I get back on Monday and then prepare for more work. This is not confirmed yet, since it all depends on how things work out today. If everything goes well, I will be on my way back home else I will be staying for another couple of days and then heading back on Friday. Keeping my fingers crossed.
The rain gods have finally made it to Kolkata. The season’s first official heavy rainfall has begun and there looks no sign of it ending anytime soon. The clouds look grey and dark and it is pouring like anything. The arrival of rains has also brought a fresh set of problem for me. Apparently none of the lights and fans in the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom work, while everything in the living room works perfectly ok. I am writing this post from the bedroom where I still have power to my laptop, but no power for anything else. I will have to call an electrician soon to fix this problem or atleast know what exactly is going on. Also this reminds me that I have to buy an umbrella else life is going to get very wet.
My thoughts...My story 