Parso kya hua maloom??

OK... A small excursion to the reality admist the dreamy and lofty world of poetry...

It's about 10 mins of walk from where the bus stops to my home. It had just rained that friday evening. Rains are quite common in Bangalore (especially in May.. dont ask me why!). I got down from the bus at about 7 PM, and started walking from the bus, feeling relieved that finally, I am going to my place by the shortest path. There are so many T-junctions in Bangalore that if you miss your lane, you will end up going twice the distance... obviously, not every city is as intuitive as Hyd!

And know what?? There was a huge water-body right in my path. I couldnt see the road for a distance! Ok.... so what do I do? I search for an alternative route. Nope! all roads to the other side are submerged under Indra's fury (or actually Bangalore's inefficient open-drain system, but then Indra has been blamed so many times in our mythology that it seems he takes these accusations better than Bangaloreans do!). So seeing no other way, I remove myself to a side of the road and start wading through the water--biggest mistake! Again the open-drain effect! Now, I am in almost thigh-deep water. hmm...
A minor setback though! Strategy rethought-- this time, I started going right through the middle of the road. This worked. I got to the other side in about 10 mins (which might have taken about 2 mins usually).

Spirits soared and I was actually sort of happy about that incident which my mind had already started blowing up into a huge adventure--"Wow! Now, even I can tell others how I braved flash floods in Bang!" Well, the elation lasted only a while.

A little background will help the readers here--
I am staying with my undergrad (CBIT) friend in the room upstairs. He was presently out of station, and his elder brother's family was staying here for the weekend. They were presently not at home.

Back to our story--
When I reached my place and unlocked the door, it wouldnt open! I tried pushing it a bit, but clearly, it was locked from the inside. ..Shit!
Then it started raining again... Shittier!
And then, the power went off.. Shittiest!!
With my jeans and shoes already drenched with the drainage water.. there was little I could do... Went to the bakery nearby, ate something, and then spent sometime in the Ganapathi temple opposite to my place, mosquitoes performing the function of "shruthi box." Not a good feeling... nobody to call, no place literally to stay away from the rain, and the temple was to be closed by 8 in the night. I started to curse my fate, my luck, and those people living at my place. How could they lock the door from the inside? Dont they know I live there?

After a while, when the power supply was restored, I spent sometime at the internet cafe (The musicindiaonline player wouldnt work there, so I couldnt listen to classical ... but thats a minor event). At about 10 PM, I called my place, and they were back-- Thank God! My friend's sis-in-law took the call.

"Hi, this is Kedar.. I had come home by 7 actually, but the door was locked from the inside, so I couldnt get in."
"Oh.. but we didnt even go upstairs" (yeah right!).
"Oh, then may be I locked it by mistake" (you can see how desperate I was to get in!).
"Oh ok.. I will unlock it."
"Thanks."

So I came home... I went straight upstairs, but found the door still locked... what the ___??
Anyways, the lady called me in from her door. I went in. She told me the door wasnt locked at all.. I suggested, may be its bolted at the bottom. She allowed me to go up through the inside and find out whats wrong. I went up to see what exactly was wrong--To my surprise, the door was really unlocked-- I pulled it a little harder and vola! It opened! It was stuck because of rain! It was clearly one of the most flabbergasting, jaw-dropping events of my life in Bang! All this "taapatrayam" for nothing?? All that time spent cursing my fate... for nothing... you stupid ass! fool! nincompoop!

I can still clearly see (perhaps as clearly as Frodo saw the eye watching him when he was near Oroduin) the lady's face when I told her what actually happened. Hatha Vidhi!! All I could think of saying was---

"Swalpa adjust maadi!"

Kedar.

After I was alone in my room, I had a really good laugh about the whole thing, and celebrated my "story" by watching maaya bazaar.. again!