Zara hatke, zara bachke, ye hai Mumbai meri jaan

First of all I apologize to my blog followers (all two of them) for deserting you for so long. I get into the habit of writing blogs and then disappear as lethargy creeps in and inertial forces get higher. There have been several posts I have been contemplating but never got to writing. Today, however, is different. Today, I feel at home. I am in Mumbai all over again. Not physically there but the conditions remind me of home.

I woke up in the morning to a roar of thunder. A thunderstorm had been raging all night. I got ready and got breakfast. All of a sudden, water started gushing in through the window sill. I woke up my roommate (Yashwantrao, he of "Yashwantrao gele Americela" fame) and we started moving everything away from the water, wiping water off using towels and keeping a bucket where required.

Yash's mother told me to not go today but I told her that I would be disowned by my citypeople (Mumbaikars) if I stayed back. I prayed to Mumba devi (the goddess after whom Mumbai is named) and started for work. On the way, I passed Suman Nagar (the name I gave to the area that was flooded as Suman Nagar always is) and had to drive VERY slowly to avoid damage to the car. I encountered the same problem near the parking lot at work but drove around it.

So all in all, what problems do we encounter in Mumbai during the monsoon:
1) Stormy weather all the time....................check
2) Flooded roads..................................check
3) Dripping houses................................check

And yet, the Mumbaikar walks on. Hail Mumbai, Hail Mumbaikars and Jai MumbaDevi.