Downpour Stories

6:00 pm Tuesday ..
Wiping the visor of my helmet I took off from the office premises .. was unusually dark for 6:00 pm . The first km from office was a breeze and was surprised by seeing so many less vehicles on the road .. As I took the first right turn ahead ... it started drizzling , did slow down seeing the huge puddle of water .. A Qualis went by splashing water on either side of the road was fortunate not to get drenched there , since the road was pretty wet with the rains pouring from the morning I decided to go slow and stick to the main roads no more shortcuts today, the brakes were 50% efficient , so decided not to risk it .As I approached the traffic signal , I saw the dial of my watch showing 6:05 pm pretty good progress for the first 5 minutes At this rate, I thought home was just 30 minutes away
Heavy incoming traffic from the opposite direction forced us to wait for a few extra minutes at the signal .Its starting to pour now .. In my eagerness to cross the signal .. I overtook a few vehicles from the left and had to cut sharply to right where i saw a huge sea of traffic waiting at a signal. There was no traffic police in sight .. My jacket was getting drenched and was feeling a little cold .My trousers were wet as well .. Water was dripping from my helmet visor. I saw a couple of motorists around people were drenched to the bone Maybe I should call home , I thought but then I realized there was no shelter till I crossed the signal across the road .
The rain looked unrelenting and so was the traffic from the opposite side , A driver in front of me zigzagged and helped his bike across the pavement and went on it for about 500 meters . I was tempted to do that at the same time the light turned green and i sped away .. It really started to pour now and the visibility was getting less when I reached a junction , I saw a young NCC cadet around 12-13 years braving the rain trying to guide the traffic .. then the traffic jam happened .. I had to take a shortcut to avoid the traffic went across the bylanes and reached Richmond Circle , I was stuck here badly ... with rain water gushing heavily though the traffic would'nt ease until another 10 mins I had to keep my engine running .. could'nt risk stopping it since was not sure if it would start .. that's the last thing I want..

6:45 pm Still stuck at the same traffic jam .. waited for another 10 mins while considering the alternatives .. was not very sure about the bylanes since most of them were narrow and chances of water logging there was very high
The endless jam seemed to continue and I was forced to take the pavement to overtake a couple of buses on the main road .. The rain was reduced to a drizzle by now .. but not the traffic and add to it the road rage ...

7:15 pm very less progress made in the last half an hour ... It looks its going to take another hour before I reached home.The traffic around Majestic was very less and very few people were out .. I sped across the Majestic signal and reached home at around 8:00 soaked in water .good thing I did'nt get my laptop from office today