Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Rain and drain
I had quite an adventure today with my bike 'Black Beauty'. How does she look? Almost like the picture here, but with out the visor and the saddle bag.
It so happened that my friend had come over to Chennai, for this Visa related interview at the embassy. He had arrived late in the evening the the previous day.
The next day, he was done with his interview, and he called me up. It had been a long time since I had met him, so went to and picked him up, and came home. We spent some time together.
It had been raining mildly when we decided, I drop him back. He would hire a auto-rikshaw, after I dropped him as far as I could. Everything was fine, as we donned our rain coats, and cosily started from my place. But the rain god seemed to have other plans with us.
The place he had to go was quite some kilometers away, and as the weather worsened, the auto-rikshaw drivers refused to get hired. And so, I thought I would drop him off myself. It was easier said than done. If one lives in the city of Chennai, they would know what I am trying to say. When it rains, it seems like the city-planners of Chennai did not know the concept of drainage.
There was water level on the road, more than knee-high, threatening to ruin my Black Beauty's engines when we were half way through. I realized this and happened to cut into a cross road that seemed to have a bit higher ground level. Then, we were lost in a maze of water filled roads and sub-urban flats by the seaside. It took quite a effort to drive in the dark and tormenting rains, and finally we reached the beach side road and headed north.
It was the end of adventure for my friend, when we found a auto-rikshaw driver, who agreed to get him to his hotel. But then, for me it was another gruelling hour. I took a different route, hoping that the situation of roads would be better. They were indeed better, but the problem was that, many other people thought the same. The result was wading with my bike with trafic jams at a turtle's pace, in knee-high water.
Returning home, my stomach started growling at me, indicating I had delayed in answering its calls. So, I went to a eating place, a usual haunt of mine during dinner time. After dinner, I went home, took a hot water bath. I had to report to work, as I was in night shift.
[I know, I know. This post does not come under 'ponderings'. But let me tell you some thing. Earth is not a perfect sphere.]
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