Friday- My Day!
It was sometime round the first week of June and I didn’t take the office cab. I instead decided to go on my own, on my bike to work. The weather was great. It was cloudy but wasn’t raining. I set out with my office bag which almost always is empty. It’s filled with eatables, mostly chocolates most times. I checked for fuel, my bike wasn’t at its best during that week and was giving me the poorest mileage ever. Fuel seemed sufficient till I reached my favourite Petrol Bunk which’s at Paradise, Bison Petrol bunk.
That’s probably my favourite bunk because I am a Taurian and I love “HORNY” creatures. Lol :P.. The other reason(read – primary reason!) is that, this bunk gives me the best mileage and my bike almost feels renewed with the quality of petrol here and thanks me every time :D. I was not even a 4th of the distance to work and it started to drizzle. I love such drizzles and it kind of wakes up the kid in me :P. About 5 minutes later, the drizzle turned into a blazing heavy rain. Visibility was reduced to almost Zero. I was beginning to get drenched and I had to search for Shelter and SOON!. I was planning on getting drenched in the rain BIG time this monsoon and I was surely not wanting it be this day for I had to get to work.
I found a giant banyan tree near AOC and there already were few people under it. I parked my bike on the roadside and got under the tree in a jiffy. It was amazing to watch the road get flooded with water in no time. Cars splashed water as they passed by my parked bike. I was planning on cleaning my bike for a couple of weeks and was glad the citizens of our country were lending a helping hand.
Very soon, the tree was wet and water started dripping here and there like a free falling stream. Everyone under the tree were getting wet and there wasn’t a tree big enough to provide shelter either. I calculated the possibilities and arrived to a conclusion that I’d better ride my way to work, instead of taking shelter because I was getting drenched under the tree as well. Very enthusiastically, I put my helmet on and ran towards my bike. Switched it on and brumm brummm brrrr... It wouldn’t start :-s.. I tried again and no avail. I tried again with the choke on and this time, it started with difficulty and went off AGAIN :-s.. I was already super drenched- so much that I could supply water to a small locality squeezing the water off my clothes. And then I was half way to work and I was wading through inundated streets and roads. Water almost a feet high. All this while, I was riding my bike, trying to avoid the splash from puddles of water when other vehicles go over it. But then, the situation had become such that all I could see was puddles of dry land here and there :P.. I had lost all my patience and the kid in me was all high! I started screaming on the road while riding. Whenever a vehicle splashed water on me, I’d chase that vehicle by screaming “Gabbar, aaj tu nahi bachegaa!” :P.. and I’d splash water on that vehicle(Only if it’s a 4 wheeler. 2 wheelers are anyways facing the brunt!). It was awesome fun :D..
I stopped half way at Begumpet and I had to face something real BAD. I didn’t put my phone in my bag and neither did I cover it within Polythene. The phone wouldn’t respond. The display was off and I could see a rainbow inside the phone :-s. Worse- I had to call my Manager and let him know that I’d be an hour late to work thanks to the rain and my phone wouldn’t work. Amazing!! Thanks to cell phones, the human power to retain phone numbers, addresses and contacts has gone down to a null value. Broke that I was, I continued towards office and I suddenly reached dry land. When I say suddenly, I mean it. It was almost like a wall. A wet land and right after that, dry land. It was stupid to see such a thing. Jubilee hills was sunny, bright and dry. From there, it was a 10 minute ride to work and I parked my bike in the parking lot and started walking. A squeaking noise followed every footstep and passersby looked at me and I looked at them with the same question-marked face :P..
I swiped my card and entered office. I reached my desk and checked my shoes. They were filled with water. I removed it and kept it aside. I wouldn’t have been surprised if a fish jumped out of it :-|. I tried drying myself in the washroom dryer and I was in great luck. I couldn’t have asked for anything better than a dryer which doesn’t work !
Anyways, I made up my mind to work the entire day with soggy clothes and no shoes. I had a couple of meetings and conference calls. All done and the day surprisingly went off fast. I stayed back at work. Fridays are play days. Friday is My day :D.. I played Table tennis for about 4 hours. Took a break from play, had something to eat at Durga Rao’s Cafeteria. And then, I was back at the TT table, playing. Played for another hour or so and then went back to my desk. In about an hour thereafter, Chandra, Raghu and I left for home with high hopes for a good Saturday and a super weekend. On the way, near Jubilee hills, We saw something magnificent on top of a advertisement hoarding in KBR Park. It was something which invited us into the park and we did exactly the same thing :D..
Read more about what happened on that Saturday in my next Blog Post :D...
~~Peace
