Stilettos in Rain

Morning shows the day - at least that's what the textbook says. But Mumbai rains? It doesn't follow any textbook, notebook,weather forecast or whatsoever. Its the lord of its own mood and fancy when to show up. So what does the Mumbaikars do since they don't have a weather forecast to depend on? Of course they depend on their inner self or for that matter something known as intuition.

Now the fact is that this intuition is also as bad as the weather department forecasts. It tricks you and catches you unawares.

Since officially the monsoons are here in Mumbai, the first thing I do in the morning is to look out of the window and play a Q&A session with my intuition. And today it predicted fair weather going by the bright sun and no clouds in sight. So eventually I decided to try on my brand new Allen Solly steel gray trousers which was perfectly complimenting my pastel colored shirt. There was a small problem, the length of the trousers was a tad more. I didn't want to change into something else thereby upsetting my dress code, so after much speculation I decided to were my stilettos with it to adjust the height.

As expected I made a fashion statement at my workplace by attracting appreciating looks from all around. The 1500 bucks for the trousers seemed totally worth spending now. I was in all smiles until the first frown came on my face around the lunchtime. The sky was terribly overcast with a mild drizzling. I crossed my fingers. Four and a half hours to go, things can change.

Things did change and that too form bad to worse. I sprinted to the bus stand across my office at 5.30, hoping to beat the rain. The traffic was bad due to rains and the always-under-construction roads of Navi Mumbai were cradling knee deep mud and slush. As my luck would have it, the buses were diverted from the main route and by the time I came to know that the damage was already done. The bus left me at a good enough distance of 20 minutes form the main road. A guy also from my company (gathered form his I-card) was also in the same bus and hence had the same fate. People in distress become friends so happened for us.

The guy suddenly became very chivalrous and courteous. He started walking in front of me and directing me where all to step. My situation was pretty bad - a fat book in my hands and holding up the trouser with the other while trying to wade through the knee deep mud puddles balancing on my catwalk stilettos. The guy was genuinely sorry for my pathetic state or at least he looked so.

Gosh I couldn't even bear to look at the state of my trousers. The concoction of cow shit, mud, spit, earthworms and I don't know what was lovingly following me where ever I stepped.

That's when the rain started and the umbrellas of all shape sizes and colors were flung open here and there. Now all I could see was a sea of colorful umbrellas at the eye level, each trying to push and shove the other umbrella.A slight miss to dodge, and your eyes would become the perfect score of a bulls eye.

I frantically tried to defend myself against the rain and attacking umbrellas.

Just as I walk cursing everything around me, my phone rang. And it kept on ringing.

This freaking phone wont ring even once when I would be at the comfort of my ac office or lounging on the bed at home. It would always ring when I wouldn't be in a position to pick it.

But I had to pick it. Since I'm currently on a job hunting trail , I cannot afford to miss any calls coming from unknown numbers, fifty percent of the time its the consultancy firm.

I answer the phone precariously balancing my book. It's from the mobile company and the voice on the other end wants to know why my outgoing calls have reduced in number over the past week.

I resist all the temptation in the world to hurl an abuse at the guy. I politely say, "I have just dumped my boyfriend hence the call numbers are going to be so till I find a new one!" and end the call.

The guy accompanying me looked a bit shaken by the sudden aggressive damsel. I don't care and keep walking. I was so derailed by the time I reached the main road that I felt like hitting someone just for all the miseries I had to endure.Finally when I stepped out of the rick before the gate of my society, I looked like a crow caught in a thunder storm. But even a crow in a thunder storm is better than me, at least it didn't have a mud splashed brand new trouser to sport with its wet look.

Now while I write all this the sky is clear, beautifully clear. I can even see the stars in ones and twos. Just wonder what exactly the rain gods had against me.

The only good thing in the entire episode- I didn't get splashed by a rick with rich and frothy puddled water - at least this one time.

Image: Internet