rain drops keep falling on my head

it happened a few days back but I was unable to pen it down earlier.
As I had mentioned earlier, am new to driving and this was my first rains. I had heard many legends about driving in the rains from my buddies who are pros and would mentally hug myself assuring myself that I too shall survive. But when it happened I was least prepared.

At home the first thing I hear when I wake up is sai baba bhajans on tv, thanks to baba, so we dont bother checking latest news before leaving for work. I thought it was just drizzling and that would not really require me to do a mental revision of things my buddies had asked me to do during such times.

But the moment I reached the main road, the thin drizzles botoxed into swollen rain balloons, initially I started humming to myself,”rain drops keep falling on my head” but soon realized the clear sky had transformed into my grandfather's old black coat and visibility was very low.(according to my personal unit of measure, it was 40 %) And I was shit scared at first, mentally kicking myself for not checking on weather and then not taking bombay rains seriously. I just wanted to run into my ma's arm for comfort.

Good sense prevailed I prayed to sai baba and looked out to see what others are doing. Every body was driving at not more than 20km/hr. I saw my speedometer, ha ha I was at 15, good. Then I saw all had put on their blinkers on, I quickly did the same.Whippers I had turned-on, on my own (smart me !!). I realized all of a sudden everybody on the road were driving on the same pace, no overtaking, no honking, no sneering. It felt like a choreographed drive, each dancing at the same pace, each turn orchestrated in synchronization. I felt that the bombay highway had got transformed into a ballet stage and all we guys driving were like dancing to an unknown tune in total co-ordination and sync.

Once the ordeal was over and I reached work safe, I started thinking about the unknown tune, guess the unknown tune was that of survival, each one of us knew that one wrong move and many lives would be at stake here. The urge to be alive bound us all together in harmony and I guess the fear of the unknown as later I learned the first rains are most dangerous as the mud on the road makes it more slippery and hence more accident prone. Wonder why this kind of prudence is not shown during normal days, our accident rates could do with a hit.

I once again learned that experience alone is the best teacher and how much every you are prepared for the test, the answers will always elude you. But once its over, you are a changed person. After that day I no longer freak thinking of rain but of course I am extremely cautious though. When ma tells me drive carefully in the rain, I smile to my self and say a little prayer.


pictures taken from my mobile of bombay rains