Mumbai Rains!

June 05, 4:30 pm - Oh my God! Its so dark outside, said Shilpa having a glance through the window of the 2nd floor admin cabin. The rain Gods were giving us clear indication of the down-pour to expect in the next couple of hours. Around 5:10 when we left office to board the bus, it had started to rain. Not many people around were carrying an umbrella, but they only seemed glad about it. Everyone seemed to be happy to enjoy their share of the 'first rains'...

I took my ususal window seat, and for a change dint plug in my ear-phones. The sound of rain drops was sounding more magical to the ears. As the bus was crossing the bridge that connects Navi mumbai, the sight of rain over vast stretches of sea looked very soothing. The only topic i could hear my fellow travellers talking about today was the rain-blessing, and how much relief it brought to all scorched by the Mumbai heat. Even the otherwise, 'no-nonsence' look guy seemed to have relaxed a muscle or two. I feel nature has its own ways of interacting with us – here was the first rain of the season - for some it may be just the water, or the fun-feeling of getting wet in rains, for some- the lightning and thundering that often accompanies the rain may be the exciting thing, for some others it may be the sound of rain-drops that was the connecting link, and if neither of these - then definitely the smell of mother earth when rain water embraces it - dont think many can be untouched by that!

By the time I had covered some of my journey, the rain had become quite heavy and as expected the traffic situation seemed bad. People were speculating heavy traffic all along the route. Amidst the traffic horning and non-stop discussions, I don’t really know when I fell asleep. But when I woke up at my normal time, 6:30 pm (I would generally reach my stop at 6:40 - 6:45 pm), I realized that today we had hardly covered half of the total distance yet - could hear my fellow travelers still speaking about the rains, about having kandha bhaji and tea, or some garam samosas. One of them also suggested we could pick some bhajis if we spot some hawker around :). I really wished someone would as I was very hungry by now - who can resist Kandha bhaji and tea on a dark rainy evening.

Surprisingly the interaction levels of us co-travellers seemed pretty high that day. The otherwise ‘hi-hello’, ‘just a smile’ relation was taken to a new level today. It was nice to listen to people talk about their different experiences in the rains. A thought then just crossed my mind - Its a very rare occasion, that people stuck in a traffic jam talk about anything the than merely talking about the jam, the possible improvements our government should do towards infrastructure and blah blah. The rains had made this otherwise unthinkable thing possible!

By the time I reached my bus stop, it was almost 8:15pm. I still had to catch an auto to reach my home. The bus stop was completely packed so I had no option but to stand under the natures shower. A woman standing next to me ofered me to come under her umbrella. She was a simple woman drapped in an ordinary saree. We had a brief conversation about where we were headed too, unfortunately our destinations were on different routes - so sharing an auto was not an option. After some time she decided to walk to her home instead of waiting indefinitely. She handed me her ticket, which was a day pass to travel in a BEST bus and also suggested me a couple of buses that I could take as no approaching autos seemed vacant that day. The almost torn, wet ticket somehow seemed priceless that time - it was not about the price, it was about the connection we had after a brief conversation, when we were complete strangers some minutes back. There was an evident concern in her voice about me reaching home safe and soon...

Unfortunately the buses that were coming also seemed packed and I couldn’t really manage to get into any of them. By now the bus stop had emptied and I could take shelter under it. The rains hadn’t subsided yet, and some teenage kids had started playing rain football right alongside the eastern express highway. Somehow that dint seem wrong or foolish to me that day. I could just see how much they were enjoying themselves. There were some people who were just walking around in the rain as though to give the season a warm welcome. Finally I got an auto around 8:40 and reached home only by 9. I was hungry, definitely must have been tired - but the exhaustion dint just feel that day.
The rains and the blend of experiences had left me completely refreshed and rejuvenated.