Consistent rains in North India have reminded me of the rainy seasons of South India. So much are the skies up there opening up that even Mumbai and Nagpur, my previous places of residences have started looking pale! While on my drive back from Punjab to Delhi, I had an experience that was overwhelming as well as exasperating! It had been raining cats and dogs all through the route. As if the God had stopped all other works of His and gotten hold of a bucket of water and splashing it on the windshield of my car with vengeance....just to tell me I should be happy with the Fiat Palio Sports I was driving as that is was the best vehicle that could keep the occupants dry as a fig in all the bucket-fulls he was dawning upon us! Ok Ok God! I have dropped the idea of changing my vehicle now! But you go on doing this job and make others proud of their possessions too!!!
I suffered a flat tire half way, but at that time, the rain gods were taking some highly needed rest. And as soon as I was finished changing the tires and having lunch at a road-side dhaba (my tummy is ok….so the apprehensions of cleanliness were ill-founded!), the Gods got back to their work. And as we took to crossing the city from its eastern side, we really thought we had entered Venice!! There were no roads. It was water all around. There were agonizingly long traffic jams…lots of cars stalled on the roads, their tyres disappearing under the waters….and some local urchins making good their chance of earnings for pushing the vehicles out of the water. It was all hustle and bustle. We stay put in the car, still comfortable in the cold airs of the AC. My gym trained body still working to its best after an eight hour long drive from Punjab. Ask me how at times the hydraulic clutch of the Palio bothers your knee and ankle!!! Thankfully, my car took the brunt of the tyre-high water with little grunt and we reached safe after an hour and a half in the traffic snarls.
They say lots of crops are destroyed due to these rains. But I guess the paddy that is the vogue in this time of the year needs as much water as the field can afford. May be it is not so bad. Sugarcane, for sure, is gonna get hurt bad as the fast winds will uproot it if not the waters spoil it….anyways…..it is like getting your two daughter married to a farmer and a potter. The farmer comes and asks you to pray for better rains. The potter asks you to pray for less rains and better sun. Now who do u listen to? Can u see one of your son-in-laws in bad shape? So wot you do it leave it to the God to decide and keep your peace with quite. Delhi, girdle up! It will be a good month more before you get any respite. Till then, thank the one at the top floor for his actions. Water tables are getting replenished!!!
