GETTING DRENCHED

STRAY THOUGHTS IN MUMBAI ON 29.06.08

My peanut brain (PB) is running in the sulk gear… has to do first with the antics of Raj Thackrey and his ilk … and then the sword brandishing and rioting Sardars of Mulund.

My PB is also sulking and damned worried about the “chakkas” (eunuchs) that are populating the Mumbai Police.

My PB’s wondering, how can small groups of disgruntled elements keep on holding up the local populace to ransom and the police just standing around watching as if nothing’s wrong with what’s taking place.

So I thought of getting diverted into something else when it started raining billies – kuttas outside.

Out of nowhere I heard a familiar voice calling out my name. It was my neighbour calling out for me to come out and get drenched… an annual feature of our building. :- )

For your reading pleasure I have put up the following blog…

…… As if you had nothing better to do…… but read this tripe….

Anyway… (Shrug! Shrug!) here goes…..

GETTING DRENCHED

It was many years in the past when I was returning from office and landed at the railway station nearest to my home. It was raining heavily and as usual I had not carried an umbrella… what the heck I thought… so I just trudged into the rain full on.

A daring step I would say because I had been warned by my ever cautious family doctor not to walk in the rains. He had declared that I was at the threshold of a sinus problem. But then he was one of those who doled out needless advice on avoiding all the best things of life that comes cheap. I had to hear all that because he was also my client for taxation.

But then all such medical advice rushed out through my other ear and nothing remained in my PB. Nothing strange about that…

… Actually the doc once shone a torch light in my ear only to find the light passing thro and thro out of the other ear. Need I say more???

:-)))

Let me come back to the getting drenched in the rain part…

I landed fully wet at the gates of our building when I bumped into Ramu my next door neighbour who was going out holding up an old wooden handled umbrella, the full sized one, which he had proudly inherited from his grandfather.

“Hey, sunny, I feel jealous of you” he said

“Why?” I asked

“You are enjoying the rain… getting wet”

So without a thought I snatched his umbrella and sprinted out on the road… and in moments putting quite a distance from him.

“Sunny ! Sunny! You bastard” he called out chasing me.

I stopped and looked back grinned and said ”Now you need not be jealous of me”

He was fully wet when he caught up with me. I gave him back his umbrella which he folded up saying, ”Its of no use.. heheheeeeeee” giving out his full throated hyena laughter and looking up at the skies for more.

We walked back to our building and started dancing in the compound.

Our building still has a compound which we used to put to good use playing cricket and badminton.

We were truly enjoying the full force of the July rain when out came Hari… in his banian and chaddis. He too joined us.

Then it was Piyu who daintily stepped out of her rickshaw and opened the umbrella. The moment she came into the compound Hari rushed up to her and snatched her office handbag and threw it at me in rugby style. I caught it and rushed to my ground floor flat and pushed it in through the window.

Piyu folded her umbrella as she too was game for getting drenched… and in no time we were all making a racket.

It helped that we were all roughly of the same age and it was raining incessantly.

Fun and laughter filled up the empty spaces … in our hearts and the building compound. We sorely missed our other childhood friends who had gone out of the country in search of cake and cream.

After that getting drenched became a regular yearly feature with more people even from the neighbouring buildings joining us.

There was no fixed time or day for this event. Mostly a rainy Sunday morning was chosen.

Today too quite a crowd had come in. Male - (Phe)male all joined in. 

I quickly changed into a t-shirt and shorts and hooked up the sound system near the window of my ground floor flat. Dhinchak music started and that was a signal for the rain dance to begin.

A full hour of dance later, somebody brought out a cricket bat, ball and stumps. Teams were formed and the game began. Six over version.

The cemented compound had turned slippery and it was quite a sight to watch podgy vishu slipping while stealing a run. Great mirth and laughter and bawdy comments followed.

People from neighbouring buildings who were weary of getting wet watched us from the safety of their balconies and windows. They too shared the good spirits by clapping and laughing at our antics.

Meanwhile yours faithfully threw a blob of wet mud at Vicky and that started a mud fight. Cricket was forgotten and the HOLI spirit started in full swing.

A couple of our friends had placed orders at the nearby vendor and then hot bhajias, batatawadas and samosas appeared.

Water was gushing out from the terrace drain pipes and we all washed up and rushed into the nearby garage where all the goodies were kept.

We had built up quite an appetite and we hogged the oily food forgetting all about cholestrol and blood pressures levels.

Piping hot Tea was also served.

We reluctantly parted one by one and went home.

The best part of this outing was that none of us later complained of falling sick or shooting blood chemistry levels.

Wondering whether laughter indeed abates the chronic ailments…

:- ))))