All rained out in Chennai

Preparations for my last visit to Chennai literally gave me nightmares. I had booked the Shatabdi for my onward journey. As you know, the Shatabdi leaves at 6 am. Four days before the journey, my intuition warned me that the cab driver who was supposed to pick me up at 4 am would ditch me. I tried getting hold of a reliable cab driver – someone known, but that guy had another drop at that time.

                                      

So just one day before the journey, I actually booked a bus ticket to Chennai. A bus that left at 9.30 pm, so I would still be able to get autos to the bus terminus at that time. I cancelled my train ticket and for the first time travelled by sleeper bus to Chennai.

Once I reached Chennai and more importantly, home, my vacation began. I was to spend six whole days with my parents – the longest break in Chennai since I’d moved to Bangalore. I was really excited. I read ‘Pandeymonium’ by Piyush Pandey, a copy that I’d recently got autographed by the man himself. I also read ‘Confessionally yours’ by Jhoomur Bose.I watched hours and hours of ‘Desperate Housewives’ with my mom, just like we used to before I moved to Bangalore.

Then the rains began. It rained all day and all night. There was a mini-lake outside our house and puddles filled all the pot-holes on the road. Little did I know that that was the start of what was to be the worst cyclonic spell that Chennai had seen since 1976 - even before I was born! My mom and I played Scrabble and talked for hours. I also spent time with my dad discussing inane things.

After the six days went by, it was time for me to get back to Bangalore. Luckily, the sun was out and I could make it to the station. After I got back to Bangalore, friends were telling me about how their houses were flooded and boats were being plied in the city to rescue people. Looks like I just managed to avoid all that and leave on the right day. Else I would have been marooned in Chennai for a week more coz trains also stopped running for a while since the railway tracks were flooded.

The minute I stepped out of the train in Bangalore, I found that it was raining here too. Thankfully, the rain in Bangalore was nothing like the cyclonic storms in Chennai!