Wet, Drenched, Green!
I had forgotten Mumbai Monsoons. It is that period in the Maximum City’s life when the skies open, and it is as if the gods have turn on the taps with no respite. There are perhaps only three settings - rain, more rain, and a torrential downpour. The rain makes everything yucky - there is mud, the garbage is wet, the street dogs are dripping, there are unknown pool of water hiding potholes of unknown depths.
But then, the rains are live giving and cleansing. The Trees feel unburdened - the dust that clings to them through the sweltering summer is washed away, and the leaves can breathe again. Mid way into the monsoons rains wash away all the muck. Old buildings and battle hardened red BEST buses and the even more battle hardened State Transport (ESTEE) buses also have a glow, although the hard day to day grind makes it like a bubble of water in Kabirdass’ poems.
Somewhere during the life of the monsoon, there is a three/four day stretch where the rains turn torrential. It is as if the goal is to ensure that anything that has been spared of its life giving touch is to be given a soak and wash. The city floods like clockwork, cars are stranded, sewers and flood waters become one. The life giving rain while is mid air, becomes the pool of hades as it accumulates on the ground. Politicians fret, people complain, and then as it came, it goes away. And People move on…the cycle of life goes on….
Verdant Garden - Green and Drenched by Monsoon love
Here are my top three monsoon memories
1) Taking my wife’s money: Meeting my now wife one evening after work at Fountain Cafe, and then getting stuck in the torrential rain. Ultimately finding a cab who offered to take us first to Colaba to drop R, and then to take me to Pedder Road (?) for a princely sum of Rs300 (in today’s terms about Rs1500). I remember, (and god she remember) dropping my wife off and then taking all the spare cash. Rain does that to people..
2) Getting out of an overturned cab unscathed: I was heading to work on a monsoon saturday morning, to complete a report with my then boss and good friend Manny Nigam. I stopped for breakfast at Croissants Etc, and then bought a whole bunch of stuff for these street kids who were hanging outside on the pavement in the rain peering into the shop. I handed them the bag and got into the first cab availaible. No Phones then, so the cab ride was spent peering out. At Marine drive, we stopped at a red light, and as the light turned, the cabbie took off, like a horse at a race. As he hit the acclerator, the car spun on the slipperly slimy tarmac, and at that instant, I instintively jammed my legs and hands in all four corners (luckily), as the car spun and overturned. I remember getting out of the car as it was completely upside down! I escaped without a scratch. Perhaps due to the positive karma of buying the kids their morning breakfast! From that point on, i always checked the tyres on Mumbai cabs before getting in.
3) Missing our flight to Delhi for our engagement: Yes, we missed our flight. And no it was not the monsoon season. But I like to blame it on the rains…because there was not a good enough reason for missing our plane.
