I am a Piscean, a water sign. Though I am not a good swimmer I love to swim! I just love water and that’s not just because of my zodiac sign but also because there is a lovely quality about water, I feel soothed when it touches my body, I feel incomplete if I don’t take a sip of water every few minutes, when it rains I want to get out in the open,sing aloud and dance to the beats of the rain.
Now that was all about my love for water but little did I know that water can be the cause of much agony to me, not once but twice so far! Two consecutive monsoons and I have had to bear the wrath of water in many painful ways.
In the year 2008 I happened to be a resident of Gurgaon, which thankfully I am not any longer, and much like this monsoon it took its own time to come down and when it rained it poured and like how! It was August 14, 2008 and we had Independence Day celebrations in office. We got done from work at around 3 pm and when we looked out it seemed as if we were in Venice. How was one supposed to drive with all that water on the roads? Nevertheless, I left work as soon as I could lest it got worse. While I was out in the open how I wished I had oars, rowing would have been much better than driving.
It took me about three hours to cover a distance of 6 kms! I was exhausted and wanted to crash but the water Gods had something else in store for me. At I was nearing my society I saw a huge crowd, I got slightly worried, it being a high-rise the first think that struck my Bollywood affected head was that someone might have jumped off their balcony! But it was worse – the rain Gods had been especially kind to my society – it was flooded! And the sight ahead of me was unbelievable – all I could see was only water – dirty, muddy, slushy water! Cars parked in the society were floating, the swimming pool had disappeared, the ground floor was completely submerged and I was stranded outside my society with a car I didn’t know where to park. After finding a suitable parking on the road for my car, I took a rickshaw from the gate to my block inside! Gave the rickshaw driver Rs 100! (Its a pity as to how this unfortunate day was the rickshaw driver’s dream day. They must have earned on that one day as much as they do in a month!) I was still not done; my house happed to be on the nineteenth floor of that up market society. So I climbed, climbed and climbed and was relieved to see the door to my house, but this relief was not there to stay. There was no electricity and water in the taps for the next three days! And I climbed up and down those nineteen floors at least five times in a span of 24 hours!
Well that was last year, it passed and here we are in 2009 when the monsoons were throwing tantrums and the entire city had been praying for it to rain and like any other good citizen I too was. And then on the night of Monday, July 27, 2009 it rained and poured and rained and refused to stop! Rain on that day alone accounted for 53% of rain in Delhi during this monsoon. And this rain had its aftereffects – the next morning was a rather taxing one. Thinking that I had left the issues of water-logging back in Gurgaon’s high-rise up market society and moved to the wide-open region of Delhi which is called Dwarka, I set out for work at my usual time. But no, how could have I got away that easily this monsoon? I have a special relationship with water! The Dwarka underpass was flooded and so much so that people were diving into it for a swim! I was frustrated at the sight. The entire traffic was detoured through two villages ‘Bijwasan’ and ‘Najafgarh’. Apart from the fantastic village tour and a new route to work exploration my car was running on the reserve fuel – which obviously meant no AC. After three and a half excruciating hours of traffic, heat and sticky flies I reached work…obviously exhausted!
I wonder what’s with me and water, but whatever this jinx is about – it has made one thing loud and clear – I am not very fond of water anymore. Period!
On second thoughts, the hot water shower after that long tiring day at work was magical! Huh!
