the first rain (for me, this year)

i was in matheran yesterday. it rained for about 20 minutes, from 2am to 2:20am.

i woke up today morning, and the terrace was dry at 7:30am.

it was nice and cloudy when i left from home. i was happy to see my bike's headlight cast a beam as far as 50 feet away, even though it was past 9am.

and then the rain struck. first a drizzle, mild enough for me not to bother taking out my windcheater. till 5 minutes later, when i was navigating bumps in the road from memory.

needless to say, i was drenched when i entered office.

so drenched, that the security guard refused to xray my bag, even after i put it in the plastic tray.

so drenched, that i left puddles from the lobby to the restroom.

i squeezed my socks dry, emptied my shoes, wrung my pants. and then sat for my day long training session.

during our first break, i went to the coffee machine in the hope of getting something
niec and hot to combat my uncontrollable shivering bouts. and the machine was only spewing watery reconstituted milk no matter what button i pressed.

by lunch, most of my pants and shirt had dried, except for a section starting at my waist and ending 6 inches or so below.

my friend who hadn't seen me in the morning asked me how come my pants were wet in such a weird shape.

i had to explain to her in front of a couple of her teammates, that that was because my underwear hadn't dried yet from the morning's drenching (i didn't want to evade the question, since that would probably make them assume worse reasons :D)

anyway, i finally made it through the day, and was waiting for the reain to subside so i could make my hasty exit.

except that it didn't.

i took my time, rearranged my bag, put on my jacket, put all my important stuff in ziploc bags, and set off with some nice good house music blasting on my earphones at near-deafening volumes.

got caught in a traffic jam even before i could turn onto the main road.

inched my way through the rain.

realized the drops that were clouding my visor were now inside my helmet, not outside.

also realized that there was no traffic or pedestrians at the left side of the road.

but did not realize that it was because there was two feet of water all the way.

anyway, once i was drenched i was drenched, so i figured i might as well plow my way through, since i knew all the bumps in the road from memory anyway.

the only person i saw who was even more unprepared for the rain than i was, was this scooty riding girl, who was wearing such a flimsy white top that i almost managed to read the label on her bra while waiting behind her at the signal in malad.