It’s monsoon time again and what can be more frightening for mumbai city than that. 400 mm in just a day and the rumour is that there’s no respite from it for the next 24 hours too. It’s my prediction that there are atleast 2-3 days in the month of July when rains have total command over this city and it brings it to a complete standstill and it has come true almost all the time.
You might be wondering why I am writing this piece at 3:55 am on this damp wednesday morning. The answer is quite simple. I am in the office right now waiting for the right time to go home and drop dead on my bed. I am stranded because the rains once again successful in bringing the train services to a complete fullstop and as a result so many of colleagues are also spending the night here, away from their family. The signs were looking ominous since evening. People, who’d left the office early, fearing disruption of rail services, got stuck in the traffic for as long as 6 hours. Then the network in the office went bust and we couldn’t work at all so the best thing for us to do was watch a movie in the conference room :-) That was one time I felt the room was being used for all the right purposes and its occupants were not bored to death :-)
I had little to complaint except that I couldn’t reach my mom’s mobile for sometime just to tell her that her son is allright. She called me on my direct line but I was busy watching The Terminal on our office projector screen in the conference room :-) and it was quite the same as watching it in a movie theatre. Then as we went out to search food for our hungry stomachs, we found to our dismay that the hotels were booked by the same people who were stranded due to rains. The best was yet to come. I ordered Vegetable Biryani from Delhi Durbar & they agreed to send it across. Then I received a call from them and the voice sounded pretty much apologetic. There were no vegetables left to make the biryani and we only had the option to order the chicken or the mutton variety. This was totally unfair to pure veggies like me but Vikrant handled the situation really well and asked them to send in whatever they could muster and make. So Rumali Rotis, Parathas, Aloo Gobi & Butter Chicken was what they sent for us. Oh yeah..the Dominos Pizza store didn’t pick up the receiver to take my orders. Thats very strange for a company which takes pride in servicing its hungry customers.
Then Giri, Vikrant myself and Swapnil had a LAN Party!! We played ‘Capture the Flag’ in Unreal Tournament (UT) menacingly. Swapnil is a pro and he hardly gave us any time to think and act. The first round was won by the Blue team to which he belonged. Giri and myself and Aadesh beat them in the next round on a different arena. Being a sore loser, that was quite a satisfying experience for my ego :-) And check out the names of some of the team members for UT. Kameena (Giri), Haramkhor (Bhooshan), Haramee (Vikrant), Sale (Chandrahas), Manhoos (Aadesh) & Namakool (Vishwendra). Swapnil called himself Killer_Tomato (wonder why!).
It’s a sad day for those who were not able to meet their loved ones today or who would be separated from their children. I totally understand their feelings (so what if I don’t have one). This of course is unavoidable since Mumbai is an island with rising sea water from all it’s side and the BMC does its best to save it from total flooding. Reliance Energy apparently cut the electricity supply to some parts of the city to avoid any electrocution or short circuits arising out of submerged transformers. The airports are also not functioning to their liking and some of the flights have been cancelled. But the resolve of this city is so strong that when I leave office in a few hours from now, I will see some happy faces in the train smiling about the last night’s episode. As for me, I am not complaining anyways :-)
