A Fairy Tale Day

Rains and their magic! I could try and describe it in a million words and yet I would leave the feeling unjustified. How does one even begin to describe the innocent splashes of water which awaken the child in you? The raindrops crash on the grounds and scatter into a thousand pearls, inviting, no tempting the mature mind to give in to the mindless ecstaacy of non-sensical pleasures, once again.

Mr.Ahuja and Vivek

So after a hearty meal, in the very populated Atta corner of Noida, imagine my surprise when we walked straight into gales of winds and noisy rain. As the two men with me (Vivek and Mr. Ahuja) stared at the rain with very minor misgivings, my heart had begun to sing a tune in sync with the pattering rain. I grabbed Vivek’s hand and said, “Lets walk to the car!”

He looked at me and looked at the forty feet distance which separated us from the car. He narrowed his eyes as he screened the crammed parking lot to locate the exact location of the car. Pouring rains blanketed his vision and increased my delight.

“You got to be kidding!” He said to me. He took one look at the childish delight on my face and knew I was very serious about going out in the rains. Mr. Ahuja looked at me and then looked at Vivek and shook his head in complete disbelief. He then wisely pointed to the laptop Vivek was holding, reminding us that we could not possibly subject the IBM thinkpad to my childish rain fantasies.

Me and Vivek

Where there is a will, there is a way, or so I believe. A quick dip into the adjoining provogue store and sweet smile to a helpful sales guy procured us a sturdy plastic bag, which was the solution to the dry needs of the laptop.

I looked pleadingly at Mr. Ahuja and Vivek .

“What the heck?” and Mr.Ahuja led the way through the rains towards where he figured he had parked his car.

It was pouring cats and dogs and despite the short distance to the car, we were dripping the monsoons onto the crisp dry seats of Mr. Ahuja’s car. He being the sport that he is, just turned up the volume of the car deck to a very mushy number and zoomed us off on the drive homewards.

Mr. Ahuja and I

But it was the first rains in Delhi! Correction Noida. So obviously I could not sit at home, while the rain beat in all its glory. I coerced Vivek into going on this magical ride through the rain-clad Noida on the enfield.

And what a ride it was! My arm snugly wound around the man I love, the winds tussling my hair and the mild raindrops caressing my face, we sliced through the cold winds of a pleasantly gray city. Traffic had reduced to a sparse thread, everybody diving for cover from the maddening rains. Only the two of us seemed to appreciate its unobtrusive presence and welcome the bliss that the rains brought alongwith.

Cruising cascading we reached the Greater Noida Expressway. And as we gained speed on the flawless tar of the expressway…Phat! We had a flat tyre. As it was raining both of us had left our wallets behind and Vivek was at least smart enough to carry his cell phone!

Murphy Strikes on the Greater Noida Expressway

He promptly dials our helpline- Mr. Ahuja. After a set of very confused directions, we settle down to await his arrival. I could no shake the feeling that Mr. Ahuja would indeed be very bugged with me for ruining his perfect Saturday! Not only do I drag him to a two and a half hour coffee session, I make him get wet in the rain, drip all over his car and when just about he is settling down to find some peace, I pull him out to help us again!!

I looked at Vivek. He was bone tired. This was supposed to be his day of relaxation too! And here he was indulging my childish fantasies about rains and bikes and not saying one word about it. Is it a wonder then that I love this guy so much?

It was drizzling mildly even now. We were parked to the side of the massive expressway. I was thinking of ways to get us out of this predicament, when a very helpful gentleman handed us the number of a guy who would come on the highway and fix the flat tyre for us. There followed another series of phone calls, underlined with relief.

We did call Mr. Ahuja, who was well on his way, but what do we do after he arrives? So the puncture-guy was actually a blessing in disguise. As we now awaited both MR. Ahuja and Mr. Puncture-guy I sat down on the low curb behind the bike. Darkness was slowly rolling in and horror stories of highway mishaps were rearing their ugly heads in my mind.

Vivek was always close by coordinating on the phone. Finally the puncture guys arrived. There seemed to be more than just a flat tyre to the bike, the tube of the bike had given up on us. I fervently awaited Mr. Ahuja’s arrival. I did not like the puncture guy and I did not want to scare Vivekby voicing my dislike. I mean there were these two guys in the middle of nowhere with us, who we knew nothing about, how much does one trust them?

My evil mind was even painting scenarios of a very malicious nature, with help from my imagination. Thank heavens Vivek is not privy to these thoughts of mine.

The Heroes of the day!

The arrival of Mr. Ahuja hence remains as the arrival of the ‘Knight in shining armor’ who came to the rescue of my prince and me. A quick fix to the tyre and we were back on the roads once again, only this time I was ensconced in the car, with Mr. Ahuja at the wheel.

Not about to let a flat tyre bog us down, we took a pit stop en route home, to fuel ourselves with mouth-watering gol gappas!

Rains…??? I love rains!!