Saturday, September 17, 2016

One Rainy Evening in Hyderabad

The skies look dark. So dark that you are worried what they will spew once they open up their swollen bellies. And they do not disappoint - they pour down in torrents like we have not seen before. I use the by-now-familiar and suicidal technique of lets-see-what-happens and head into the storm. Rain pelts down. Its hard to see a few feet ahead. Potholes are hidden by sheets of water and cars and two wheelers watch these puddles warily. What surprises do the water puddles hide? Tentatively we go forward and on all occassions we find the water hides a huge pothole. We are thankful it is not a manhole and move on with a bruised undercarriage.

It's time to take a call between the many routes available. Which ones will get flooded and which ones will offer passage? One choice and then another and we seem to have used our knowledge of three decades well. We reeach the theatre and watch the movie.

The rain does not let up. When we step outside Prasad's Imax the road is chock a block with traffic. I turned left and instead of taking the u turn and joining the choked traffc, took the easy route to the left. It led back to the road near the Secretariat. The traffic was worse. Another fatal u turn and we were further away from the road we needed to take. This time our luck had run out. There are no easy routes in such situations.

The next two hours were spent negotiating a one km stretch to the flyover - where we started. Then over the flyover and home. In rain I decided, stick to the high areas, not just known routes. Avoid the low lying ares. Be patient. You cannot be smart in a clogged traffic situation. It could set you back two hours. It's a pattern that could well set you nack by decades if you don't learn.

No comments: