Thursday, June 01, 2006

It Rained Really Heavily That Day

This happened just last week while I was returning from a hotel in Bhubaneshwar after attending a small party with my friends. It was around 12.30 at night when I left the hotel. While I was about the leave the hotel premises it started to drip lightly. We were confused whether to leave then itself or wait for the heaven to relent upon us. Some of the guys however planned to leave right then since the rain drops were pretty light and we never knew how long it may rain. The only two people left bemused were me and my roomie, with whom I had been to the party. After some contemplation though, even we thought of going by the populist choice of leaving immediately. Our decision was also augmented by the fact that I also had to catch a train to Kolkata that very morning at 5.30 and I hadn’t managed to do my packing. Hence we left.
But who knew that there were other plans from the heavenly abode. We weren’t even 50 mts from the hotel premises that it started raining cats and dogs. But there was no looking back now as we had touched the highway. We only persisted with our journey. I was riding pillion while my roomie was on the driver’s seat. By the time we must have been around 200mtrs from the hotel and the rain drops grew bigger. The rain was coming right onto our faces. Pinching us. Hitting us really hard. Not only were we totally wet by now, I for that matter was shivering.(I had worn a thin Tee that evening since it was damn hot when I had come ). Having no idea whatsoever what to do now, we thought of taking refuge in a shed for sometime and wait for the rain to subside. Lucky we thought by ourselves. We spotted an ATM by the roadside. After somehow managing to park our bike we ran towards the ATM and hid in the ATM booth. After sometime when the force of the rain reduced a bit we planned to escape. As we were on our way out the force of the rain again increased. But this time we were adamant as to whatever happens we were not going to stop. We still had to tread almost 5 kms from that point. Never the less we moved on. From this point on infact it grew darker. Visibility reduced to zero. The roads familiar to us till a few hours ago seemed real strangers. One more thing I forgot to mention till now is we(me & my roomie) both are bespectacled beings. Hence it was more difficult for us to spot anything in the dark. I at the back could only pray that no obstacle come in our way, else we forsure would have had our body parts hanging by poles along bedside in the hospital J. We kept moving carefully, moving at speeds of 20 kmph. Then finally came a turn where we had to move left. Am glad to mention this because at least after that point the rain wouldn’t be head on with us. After about another kilometer on that road we finally arrived at our dwelling. The ride which otherwise would have taken us 15 min took a 1 hr this time. At least we thankfully reached home and I was pretty happy about that.
After reaching home I remembered that I was to pack my bag now since that morning I had a train. I thought of immediately sliding down on my bed since it was already 1.30 a.m and I had only about 3 hours at max to sleep.I instantly kept my wet clothes and shoes to dry in one room under the fan. Putting the alarm clock into action by my bed I fell asleep in a min. I don’t know whether the alarm clock had worked or not that particular morning, I had woken up only by 10am. Well as is obvious by now, I invariably missed the morning train and had to catch the one in the afternoon.
Though the nerve wracking thoughts of that night has subsided now, I am infact happy of such an experience to carry for the rest of my life..

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