A rainy day

How it started
Yesterday evening was like any other evening. I was at a site supervising installation. And then it started. No not a mess up, but the rains. It has been drizzling in this area for almost a week. So we thought it would drizzle for few hours and when it stops we can go home. But it didn’t. Instead it started raining heavily after an hour or so. We waited for couple of hours and then gave up. Everybody took their raincoats (I don’t carry one) and started leaving one by one. I was the last one to leave after ensuring that all our equipment was neatly stored in a dry shelter. This site is 25 km from home. I enjoyed my ride back home. I felt the deep urge for a mad dash on deserted and well-maintained highway. But then I have promised someone that I would refrain from any such stupidity. So I maintained a slow and steady pace while rain God was in no mood to slow down. Now the route I took is great fun normally, but when it rains, it’s a great mix of danger, adventure and fun. This route passes through few villages and has couple of causeways. Finally I reached home and then everything went off normally.


Next day
I woke up and got ready like any other day. But today was not normal. It had been raining very heavily since early morning. I know this because I had woken up to call/sms a dear friend of mine to deliver my best wishes for a presentation. I called up my entire team in the morning to make sure that their homes were safe and asked them to stay put and not report to work. Soon after that I left for my site amidst protest from everybody. I wanted to check whether there were any problems at site. I was in no mood to risk out going in a car as reports of water logging were pouring in. So I took out my trusted steed (call sign ‘Sabot’) and rode on. On my way I could see that many houses were water logged. And negotiating through causeways filled with water is definitely tricky and thrilling. The best part was when I crossed a causeway just in front of a dam. Just a minute after I crossed that causeway, I could see overflow gates of that dam opening up. It was an awesome sight to watch overflow gates open up and water gush out of it. One after the other six gates opened up and massive flow of water raised the water level over the stream I had crossed before a couple of minutes. After watching this wonderful sight, I cranked engine and rode towards my destination. On my way I could feel raindrops hitting me like needles. This experience was simply great and refreshing. All said and done, I don’t suggest that any of you should do something crazy like this. Finally I reached my destination. I checked everything at site. There was nothing to worry about. That was when this idea of sharing my experience glowed in my head. I believe all of us have written an essay titled “a rainy day”. But this rainy day was just my kind of day – wild and tons of fun.