A Rainy Affair...!

The Sunday was here again and half of the day passed quickly while I had my resolution to be kept. That was to exercise – either jog or swim. Nearly couple of hours after lunch, I set out to swim with the newly replaced swim-wear and got down to the pool where I saw something unusual, something I had not seen for the past 10months or so. The pool was full!!! WT*

Yeah there were some guys in their 20s, some girls along with them of similar age group occupying half of the pool, while the other half served as playground to some kids. I waited for a while but didn’t see any indication of any one of them coming out any sooner and since I was in a rush to meet a friend/acquaintance (well I’m not yet wise enough to discriminate the two, may be a blog-post on it later) somewhere in the city, I quickly gave up on swimming and thought the road shouldn’t be too full to stop me from jogging. So there I was with my new in-ear earphones on the iPhone in different attire set for jogging. So I’m on my way to keep the resolution. Hurray!

Not after too long, on my way back, the sky had changed colors and grown darker even as it was just 4PM. I hoped the clouds would take some time to settle in and I wouldn’t be threatened too much. But a resolution isn’t any easy thing to keep, hence the name. Slowly, but the clouds started pouring in. I ran quicker than normal, somehow got under the shelter of a bus-stop after getting only minimally wet. Just as I stood there the thunderstorm grew, lighting stuck and rains bumped in from different angles making it harder to stay without getting wet. I looked at my watch and it was already 4:30. I was away from home by at-least a mile or a 10min run. I cursed myself for not carrying any money or a cash-card just in case such a situation should arise and looked over the watch again and once again. I was missing little things like a small towel, an umbrella and a $1…

There were 2 other girls taking shelter along my side and I thought of the ways I could borrow $1 from them (to travel by bus). It hadn’t happened with me before and I wasn’t capable of borrowing from strangers. The showers only got stronger showing no signs of stopping. Here I was serving my resolution and there I had to meet my friend on time. It wasn’t fair to have cancelled the appointment especially when we were meeting after quite a long time. I stood contemplating. Sometimes we take too much time to make decisions in life. Whether that time was an investment or a waste, time will tell. Here I had made up my mind after waiting helplessly for 15mins and got out of the shelter and crossed the road getting wet.

There were HDB blocks that could shelter me through some distance and I was banking on that. Underneath the blocks, I walked pretty easily but while crossing over to another road I had to find a right place and time to run in the rain. I did that and protected both my ear-phones and phone from water. In less than 10mins I had reached another bus-stop and substituted for the $1 that I didn’t borrow. From this place to my house, it was some 350m with no shelter anywhere on the way.

Why can’t there be 24X7 call centers for real crisis like these when you’re stuck in a heavy rain somewhere with a phone, yet without help. You run, get drenched, catch cold and fall sick. Instead pick up that phone and call someone to say, ‘Hey, you know what? I need you to send someone to take me home and I shouldn’t get wet even a bit’ But such things didn’t exist. I could’ve even called for a cab, but rainy days make that difficult too if not impossible. Then there were 2 pretty girls in the same bus-stop. These girls were different from the earlier ones and they had walked from those HDB blocks to the bus-stop with umbrellas. ‘Hey can I borrow one of your umbrellas? You see I’m quite drenched already’ I only thought, but didn’t say a word to them. Before I could make a decision, I saw myself running across the road. Just as I started, the signal also turned green for the vehicles that were waiting on the other end!

I ran faster than I ever did. I could’ve slipped on the wet road or some vehicle might’ve sped through and run over me. Obviously I wouldn’t be sitting here and writing all this on the same day. So you know neither of it happened. I continued to run until I reached the gate where the security personnel would give a long stare.

Without an access card, you just can’t enter the building even if you stayed there for nearly a year. They would demand for some ID proof at-least. The same was not applicable for the back gate which was now closed. I was about to feel sorry once again for myself while my neighbor was coming out of the building and opened the gate with a smile, holding the gate open until I got in. Ah! I’m in, I exclaimed.

I continued to run and got into the lobby when I saw those boys smoking cigarettes. These were the same guys who occupied the pool earlier because of which I went jogging and came back wet. I held both of my middle fingers from popping out and walked past them. Inside the lift I saw myself in the mirror how wet I was and got into my dwelling. When god sent man to earth, why did he leave him homeless I wondered! I was thankful to those men who had invented the idea of a house.

The rains had not stopped and I felt proud of making that decision to run in the rain. But if had the rains stopped I would’ve made a boo boo! Right!?