MUMBAI IN THE RAIN

5 p.m. and the sky suddenly darkened, jagged lines of lightening ripped vertically through the sky, claps of thunder followed and then the swollen clouds burst apart and a deluge of water dropped out of the sky.  The flimsy windscreen wiper on the taxi couldn't cope, the windows clouded over and everything ahead was water.  The gutters at the side of the road soon filled and became dams, the taxi aquaplaned valiantly through sending up more sheets of water, I sat in the back unable to make out where we were....and then it happened....chug...chug..chug and the engine cut out.  The driver skillfully pulled over to the side and we stopped.  Stunned, I realised the predicament I was in ....in the middle of Mumbai in the Monsoon in a broken down taxi without an umbrella and not knowing where I was.  I frantically turned over the options in my mind....there seemed only two....I either stayed in the car....or got out into the traffic and got soaked to the skin in a few seconds....to my amazement, the driver had no idea how to open the bonnet of the car nor any idea what could be wrong with it...he didn't speak English and I didn't know enough Hindi.  The rain poured down - it was rather like being under a waterfall.  The driver tried turning the key in the ignition again and pumping the accelerator - but it wouldn't catch.  After 20 minutes or so the rain slackened off a bit - it was now or never, I yanked the door open and fled across the road - a man was selling umbrellas, I bought one without bothering to bargain, grateful for the protection and miraculously found myself in a street I recognised.  Half-an-hour later, I was back at the hotel, my jeans soaking wet up to the knee !

The next day, walking around Colaba, you could see the havoc caused - some trees, bone dry for nine months of the year, have branches which overreach and extend themselves, in search of water, but with the torrential rains, the wood swells and branches become too heavy, to bear their own weight and come crashing down.  Only the Banyan trees, seemed unaffected by the vagaries of nature.

The air is so laden with moisture, that my leather watch strap, bone dry and stiff in Gujarat, became as malleable as putty and wet to the touch and impossible to wear - so the Monsoon season brings a whole new set of challenges, requiring adaptation in order to survive !