Its been raining cats and dogs in Chennai for the past two days. It is quite normal that rains follow me wherever I go. It started drizzling in Chennai as soon as I came here. Hyderabad had a healthy rainfall when I was there last year. It rained in Bangalore too when I was there about a month or so back … and if that was not enough, it suddenly started raining in Delhi when I went home after finishing that blood and money-sucking year at Hyderabad. In fact it suddenly started raining the day I landed in Chennai on a short trip last year and in 10 minutes, the entire road to my mamaji’s place had turned into the river Cauvery, as it flows in Karnataka. May be its high time to start cultivating some entrepreneurial spirit to take advantage of such happenings …. not exactly the way Dev Anand tried it out in the Hindi movie Guide though. (Actually its been raining rather too much in Chennai this time, may be because the gods are happy that my friend Rajani had moved away from Chennai for a few weeks).
The electricity board in Chennai seems to be doing a much better job than the met department when it comes to predicting when the rains are about to come. For instance, I was sitting at home yesterday night and suddenly the power went off. The first reaction from my brother was “oh … it would have started to rain or a shower must be just a minute or two away”. I opened the door leading to the namesake balcony (that ends before it starts) and I saw the first few drops landing on the balcony floor.
Its been a struggle traveling outside home. Places that were just around the corner till about two days back now look very distant. Roads have turned into waterways with ferrymen gunning their boats without the slightest sympathies for creatures wading near the shore. I saw this old man in front of me get into one of the lakes that had formed last evening, stop there and look helplessly at an autorickshaw heading towards him from the opposite direction. What next? … the familiar Hajmola ad scene was enacted once again and the auto driver sped away adding a few new colors to the old guy’s life.
Meanwhile, a few people have been making hay while the sun doesn’t shine ….. the cinema houses in the city have apparently wisnessed a rise in ticket sales. This I think can be attributed to the fact that people travelling near the movie halls get a good option to take cover from the prolonged rains. What else can explain people sitting through horrible tam movies that have been released last week like … well …. I am not taking names. I think the time is not far off when the tamil movie industry starts organizing events/pujas for invoking the rain god alongwith the usual once-in-five-year-thanksgiving-ones they have been religiously organizing once a new Chief Minister gets elected, for god knows what.
Ramkumar R 