THE HEAVY RAIN IN BANGALORE
===========================
Yesterday, 25-Oct-05, it rained heavily in Bangalore. http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/oct262005/state18505420051025.asp has more details !
Perhaps, the mist in the early morning was a pre-cursor of things to come. At around 7:00 a.m. in the morning, there was a mist that made Bangalore resemble a hill station. The morning was pleasant enough. As the day progressed, the skies turned grey and a fine spray of a rain started. I was at work, absorbed in activities. When I looked out of the window, I was surprised to see the wet roads - had it really rained ?! The rain kept coming and stopping. It felt like the rains in Mumbai - and that can be really something as one day in July this year has shown us !
What was different yesterday was the duration the rain lasted and its intensity when it rained. Bangalore's infrastructure crumbled. What made matters worse (probably !) was the communication network .... people were advised to leave work and reach home. In retrospect, that was like fanning the flames : everybody left work to reach home in the early evening hours, I suppose ! That may have contributed to the traffic jams that held people up for hours together.
A friend and I ate snacks and I also fortified myself with a cup of hot milk. I decided to leave after drinking it. Three other friends joined me in my car. My car went out and joined the main road easily enough. 100 metres away or so, I took a U-turn - and that was the only mistake I was allowed to make !
For the road was jammed with cars and other vehicles all the way back to where I work. To reach it was a matter of moving -moving ? no, I suppose "inching" (my wife standing next to me as I type this suggests "snailing" !!) would be a more apt word ! - forward a few metres every 5 minutes. It took us the best part of 30 minutes to sight our work place again ! My fellow commuters called up other friends to find out how they were doing - and we heard the same story each time : "I am stuck near _____ since the past 2 and a half hours", "I reached ___ at 5:30 and left there at 6:30". The places, in the previous line, of course, don't matter. It may have been that it was simpler to state which road was free yesterday !
Anyway, seeing the rush, one of my commuters joked that it would be a good idea if we took a U-turn and returned to office. He meant it as a joke, but to me that idea held great appeal. I told my "car-mates" that it was a serious option - and suddenly, the joke was an option that all of us considered seriously. By the time I approached the second U-turn, the decision was made. I took the second u-turn and turned back into the parking lot where I work.
Since one of us had fever, he hitched a lift with another colleague. Meanwhile, the remaining three of us set out for the second time from work, this time on our feet !
It was an enjoyable walk, actually ! We walked along a one way that looked relatively more free than the traffic jam in front of our work place. The vehicles were jammed near Trinity Circle. There was a small rivulet of flowing water ! we took a left turn on M. G. Road to enter Brunton Road. At the end of Brunton Road, a tree had fallen down on a car. The rescue teams were at work, cutting the tree and trying to improve the situation.
We walked past St. Philomena's hospital, then joined Langford Road and walked past Shanthinagar. We reached Double Road and turned right. Apart from Trinity Circle, the traffic situation was pretty decent in the south of Bangalore. Traffic was moving on Double Road, Krumbiegal Road and we spotted only a couple of cars that had broken down.
All this while, there were signs of the rain on the roads. There were puddles of waters and water flowing towards the drains in small streams and bigger currents on larger roads. We jumped over a few, gingerly walked across a few others, but for most of the part, we enjoyed ourselves. We talked of different things : work, naturally ; the rains too ; jokes and of course about our adventurous walk !
One good news was that from Lalbagh Main Gate, the pavements had tiles. I had not seen many people actually walk on the footpaths. Yesterday, I was one of them and it felt good. On Krumbiegal road, at one point, the water was practically a flood. Water from Lalbagh was flowing out on to the road from a breach in the wall and a group of people had gathered around the breach.
"They are fishing", remarked one of my friends to us. To my amazement, I realised that he was right ! We reached Lalbagh West Gate where he went one way and the other friend and I also decided that the walk had finished. We found one auto apparently awaiting us and climbed in to it, gratefully.
After years, I had walked around 7 km in an unforgettable evening for Bangalore !
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NOTE:
I had originally written this blog in another site. Since that site is no longer accessible, I am uploading it in this blog at http://fewidlethoughts.blogspot.in/ using the same date as the original blog dates.
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===== COMMON TEXT FOR ALL BLOGS =====
++++++ BEGINS ++++++
When I created my first blog, I thought I was
being clever by being "anonymous" and let my
opinions speak for themselves (see the archive !)
Imagine my embarrassment when I saw my name
displayed ! So now, while I still retain the blog
name as "Anonymous Expressions", I will only
request you to ignore my name and concentrate on
my opinions instead !
ALL COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS ARE ACKNOWLEDGED
AS THE PROPERTIES OF THEIR OWNERS.
The opinions expressed in the Weblogs are my
personal opinions. Please tell me if you spot any
factual mistakes or don't like the way I have
expressed a view. If I can see your point, I will
correct the mistake. You can email me at
kiran.suma@gmail.com.
++++++ ENDS ++++++
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
===========================
Yesterday, 25-Oct-05, it rained heavily in Bangalore. http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/oct262005/state18505420051025.asp has more details !
Perhaps, the mist in the early morning was a pre-cursor of things to come. At around 7:00 a.m. in the morning, there was a mist that made Bangalore resemble a hill station. The morning was pleasant enough. As the day progressed, the skies turned grey and a fine spray of a rain started. I was at work, absorbed in activities. When I looked out of the window, I was surprised to see the wet roads - had it really rained ?! The rain kept coming and stopping. It felt like the rains in Mumbai - and that can be really something as one day in July this year has shown us !
What was different yesterday was the duration the rain lasted and its intensity when it rained. Bangalore's infrastructure crumbled. What made matters worse (probably !) was the communication network .... people were advised to leave work and reach home. In retrospect, that was like fanning the flames : everybody left work to reach home in the early evening hours, I suppose ! That may have contributed to the traffic jams that held people up for hours together.
A friend and I ate snacks and I also fortified myself with a cup of hot milk. I decided to leave after drinking it. Three other friends joined me in my car. My car went out and joined the main road easily enough. 100 metres away or so, I took a U-turn - and that was the only mistake I was allowed to make !
For the road was jammed with cars and other vehicles all the way back to where I work. To reach it was a matter of moving -moving ? no, I suppose "inching" (my wife standing next to me as I type this suggests "snailing" !!) would be a more apt word ! - forward a few metres every 5 minutes. It took us the best part of 30 minutes to sight our work place again ! My fellow commuters called up other friends to find out how they were doing - and we heard the same story each time : "I am stuck near _____ since the past 2 and a half hours", "I reached ___ at 5:30 and left there at 6:30". The places, in the previous line, of course, don't matter. It may have been that it was simpler to state which road was free yesterday !
Anyway, seeing the rush, one of my commuters joked that it would be a good idea if we took a U-turn and returned to office. He meant it as a joke, but to me that idea held great appeal. I told my "car-mates" that it was a serious option - and suddenly, the joke was an option that all of us considered seriously. By the time I approached the second U-turn, the decision was made. I took the second u-turn and turned back into the parking lot where I work.
Since one of us had fever, he hitched a lift with another colleague. Meanwhile, the remaining three of us set out for the second time from work, this time on our feet !
It was an enjoyable walk, actually ! We walked along a one way that looked relatively more free than the traffic jam in front of our work place. The vehicles were jammed near Trinity Circle. There was a small rivulet of flowing water ! we took a left turn on M. G. Road to enter Brunton Road. At the end of Brunton Road, a tree had fallen down on a car. The rescue teams were at work, cutting the tree and trying to improve the situation.
We walked past St. Philomena's hospital, then joined Langford Road and walked past Shanthinagar. We reached Double Road and turned right. Apart from Trinity Circle, the traffic situation was pretty decent in the south of Bangalore. Traffic was moving on Double Road, Krumbiegal Road and we spotted only a couple of cars that had broken down.
All this while, there were signs of the rain on the roads. There were puddles of waters and water flowing towards the drains in small streams and bigger currents on larger roads. We jumped over a few, gingerly walked across a few others, but for most of the part, we enjoyed ourselves. We talked of different things : work, naturally ; the rains too ; jokes and of course about our adventurous walk !
One good news was that from Lalbagh Main Gate, the pavements had tiles. I had not seen many people actually walk on the footpaths. Yesterday, I was one of them and it felt good. On Krumbiegal road, at one point, the water was practically a flood. Water from Lalbagh was flowing out on to the road from a breach in the wall and a group of people had gathered around the breach.
"They are fishing", remarked one of my friends to us. To my amazement, I realised that he was right ! We reached Lalbagh West Gate where he went one way and the other friend and I also decided that the walk had finished. We found one auto apparently awaiting us and climbed in to it, gratefully.
After years, I had walked around 7 km in an unforgettable evening for Bangalore !
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
NOTE:
I had originally written this blog in another site. Since that site is no longer accessible, I am uploading it in this blog at http://fewidlethoughts.blogspot.in/ using the same date as the original blog dates.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
===== COMMON TEXT FOR ALL BLOGS =====
++++++ BEGINS ++++++
When I created my first blog, I thought I was
being clever by being "anonymous" and let my
opinions speak for themselves (see the archive !)
Imagine my embarrassment when I saw my name
displayed ! So now, while I still retain the blog
name as "Anonymous Expressions", I will only
request you to ignore my name and concentrate on
my opinions instead !
ALL COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS ARE ACKNOWLEDGED
AS THE PROPERTIES OF THEIR OWNERS.
The opinions expressed in the Weblogs are my
personal opinions. Please tell me if you spot any
factual mistakes or don't like the way I have
expressed a view. If I can see your point, I will
correct the mistake. You can email me at
kiran.suma@gmail.com.
++++++ ENDS ++++++
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
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