Rainy day

That’s the title of S first interactive book. Its about a boy getting ready to go and play outside in the rain and S has to help him with his belt, zip on the raincoat, tie up the cap, button the sweater and so on. Its one of S favourite books. And now rainy days have started here…and S will soon be buttoning up her raincoat to get ready for school (lazy mommy has still not bought a raincoat for her though!)
Its been pouring continuously since morning and usually one of the advantages of such heavy rain is that you can take a day off from work saying it’ll take you too long to reach (traffic is really terrible during the monsoons) and by the time you reach you’d need to leave since many offices declare half day on days when the rain is very heavy as trains/buses run late/sometimes cancel services. Now since I’ve moved next door to my office I can’t make this excuse and have to drudge into office.
Schedule has been very hectic for the last few days and I’ve got a tummy upset which does not help matters. Mornings its rushed as S has to be ready for school by 9 which means a rushed milk and then breakfast and I need to be ready for office by the same time. Then drop off S at school at 9 and get into office. 10:45 pick up S and drop her home. Back to office. Then 1 pm again back home to give S her lunch (one of the maids had to rush off home on an emergency), grab a quick lunch and then back to office. Then again leave office at 6:15 to get back home, give S her soup, bath, take her to the park, then dinner and then finally rest for me! But I’m happy since S is settling down in school by and by. She cries when I drop her off but I believe she is ok after and when she comes out she seems happy- earlier she used to be sobbing. She brought home her first coloured picture the other day- it was a cut out of a girl and she had coloured the frock red. Am thrilled!
Getting back to rainy days, its so difficult to imagine hot tea, pakodas and a nice book which is what a rainy day should be all about while you are stuck behind your laptop at office. But remembering other rainy days this may not be as bad. My first experience of the monsoon in Mumbai was in 2000 when I first came to this city on my first job. We were staying in a chummery about 1 hour from the office and used to come by private bus. That day due to the rains it took close to 3 hours to reach office. Then I had to go for a meeting to town which took another 2 hours. The meeting lasted all of 30 mins and then it was the long journey back- we luckily had a car but there was so much traffic and flooding on the roads and we had to drop off various people on the way that I finally reached home around 10 p.m. And then I get to know that office had declared a half day around 12:30 and my flatmates had come back home in the afternoon and lounged around playing cards and eating pakodas!! So unfair!
Another rainy day which I’ll always remember is July 25th 2005, which was a terrible day for Mumbaikars. There was a cloud burst and extremely heavy rain in the afternoon coupled with high tide and by late evening the roads were completely flooded and traffic was standstill. I managed to leave office early that day around 5:30 and got a lift to about 1 km away from my place. I trekked through the waters home and reached home around 7:30. By then the telephone networks were down and I couldn’t get in touch with the hubby. Every half an hour I would try and get no network coverage. Finally around 2:30 I went to sleep. The hubby was driving non stop for 6 hours and reached home early morning. But he was lucky, some unfortunate people suffocated in their cars/drowned in the water which could have been easily avoided if the drainage system was more efficient.
This is the first monsoons that I am back at work full time after S was born. Am keeping a watchful eye on the rains, the housing complex we stay is low lying and easily gets flooded. I really don’t want a situation where S is stranded inside and I’m outside unable to get back into the complex.
On a separate note, the mountain drive is supposed to be very beautiful in the monsoon season and this year I’m quite keen to try it out over one weekend. Hopefully sometime soon!!