Rain rain go away.......

A friend whom i was meeting after 6 yrs called me up early in the morning.....

"hey, its kinda gloomy, it may rain heavy today" she said
"yeah, so....thats so normal with mumbai" i said
"but you may get stuck, i live near-by only"
"You delhites will always fear rain, you dont see them any way"
"Ok then you are coming is it??"she said
"Mark a man's word on stone " i replied

It had rained only in the morning for past few days, and then by afternoon the skies cleared out. I thought to myself that it will be no different today. I ventured out in the rain armed with an umbrella and mobile charged to full( in case of emergency!!!!!). It was drizzling lightly. I reached the bus stop, the stop was empty. I felt happy at heart, lesser the people more the probability of getting a seat. 5 mins , 10 mins, 15 mins, 30 mins. No sign of any bus, my happiness became short lived as the stop was again packed to its capacity, the drizzle had became heavy by now. Finally i decided to catch a bus which takes me till halfway and then change over. I did so, believe me people, standing on 1 leg in a bus for 1 hr is not a simple task. I reached the mall where we were supposed to meet at a CCD . I realized that day that girls dont like it when guys come late. I had not realized that earlier because i am quite punctual when it comes to meeting up with females. As we were reminiscenting about our old high school days, my phone beeped , an sms from BMC ' BMC advices its citizens to stay indoors and not to venture out unless very urgent'. I looked out and said to my friend, "where is it raining that hard to stay indoors" to which she replied " i am a delhiite now, we dont see rains any way(taunt any one??)". We decided to go for a movie and that is when i started getting calls from home now, as i was unable to pick them up, the calls became more frantic. Finally i picked up and  consoled my sister. After the movie i was planning for a lunch, but when i looked out of the window, the heavy drizzle had become heavier and water was there everywhere. I bid my friend adieu and decided not to take a  bus and instead take a taxi or rickshaw....

 "BARC colony" i said panting after a  long walk
  "nopes" he said in a monotone

  "BARC??"
  " pay me Rs 400" the auto driver said
  "hehe, it comes to around 100 and you charging me 4 times?? you must be kidding" i said
   "You can come if you want to" he said
   " i ll get soaked in water here till my skin, but i wont pay you Rs 400"

      Finally i got an overcrowded bus again till halfway, and when i got down the water was ankle deep( only!!!!!).  I see one more sms on my phone from the commissioner of police, "All offices are closed , please go back home". And immediately after 30 mins , the buses got crowded, the trains stopped due to some cable failure, that added more pressure on the already overcrowded buses. I was only 20 mins away from my home when my bus broke down, no incoming bus decided to halt due to the crowd and i had to walk back home. And surprisingly by now the rain had stopped.The skies had cleared like all other days in the week, but by now all offices had been closed 2 hrs before time.


                      Now that leaves a question to be asked. Was all the panic required?? The rains are nothing new to mumbai, but is it getting more importance than it should be getting?? All the office goers and their family members were panic stricken , why?? No it was not because of the rains, it was only because of the so called advance warning by the authorities. Had their been no warning , no one would have panicked, My family called me up minute after minute only because of those smses, and in turn even i panicked( in front of a delhiite and that too a girl!!!!!). The already overloaded transport system got further load of people and finally who suffered were the people like me who finally had to walk down for hours in some case to reach homes.

              
        The thing i realized that  day was that,yes precaution is better than cure but then sometimes too much of precaution can cause a pandemonium of unnecessary height...........