I got to see the ‘not-so-glamourous’ side of Ban­ga­lore yesterday.

The rains came lash­ing down cre­at­ing havoc on the streets. And I hap­pened to be in the mid­dle of it all.

To make mat­ters worse, I chose yes­ter­day to put my dri­ving skills to test. I had not ven­tured any­where far with the new car. But I thought it was about time. What luck, I must say!

When I started off from home, it was nice and clear.

But the Gods were look­ing. And decided to put me to test. Or some­thing like that.

After dri­ving for about a kilo­me­tre, it started raining.

Then, it began pour­ing in earnest. Cats and dogs, like they say.

On 100 Feet Road, I began to panic a lit­tle. Parked the car and waited. No respite.

Blind­ing lights. Fogged-up win­dows. Crazy traf­fic. And I couldn’t see a thing! Was won­der­ing what on earth pos­sessed me to be so stupid.

Finally, reached my des­ti­na­tion. Indi­rana­gar. Spot­ted one park­ing space and breathed huge sigh of relief. Ahhhh.

Madhu’s nice cock­tail and the amaz­ingly yummy food at Shiok’s (dumplings, gar­lic pep­per prawns, flavoured rice, spicy prawns curry and fried fish) and my din­ner date got my mind off the rain. But not for long. It was time to head back. Lavan­nya had to drive for about 20 kms on her bike. I had to cover a fair share too.

Just as I was con­tem­plat­ing my jour­ney home, I got an SMS sug­gest­ing I take out the new car for a short ride in the rains. And I just couldn’t help smil­ing :) I sure did, but it had def­i­nitely turned out to be more than a short ride!

It was worse than I imag­ined. There was knee-deep water in some areas. Water was gush­ing out of the strangest places. I was pet­ri­fied that Ma Chérie would stall and refuse to move fur­ther. I could pic­ture other dri­vers abus­ing me in the mid­dle of the road! But she behaved beau­ti­fully and I was so proud of her. Through all that water, muck and slush, she drove like a dream…

When I reached the road in front of my house, there was another obsta­cle await­ing me. One side of the road had become a river (there were cars that had stalled in the mid­dle) and all the traf­fic moved to one side of the road. So there was a total com­mo­tion. Cars honk­ing here and there, stuck in totally oppo­site direc­tions. And of course, water every­where. It was my dri­ving night­mare come true!

Was I glad when I finally parked Ma Chérie safely in her slot.

Rains, I realised can be so roman­tic, as Pallavi writes in her post! But so ‘not’ roman­tic when you are caught in the ensu­ing mess!

Per­son­ally, I love the rains. In fact, Pallavi’s post also reminded me of the end­less rainy spells in Shil­long — they used to go on for days. We used to live in a house, which had large French win­dows nearly all around it. And it was on a hill­top. My lit­tle room in the cor­ner of the house gave me a lovely view of the streets below and the hills around (now of course, I appre­ci­ate it so much more!). And what a view. It was the best place to be dur­ing the rains. The best part was no slush and muck after the rains. No water log­ging. Being hilly sure has its advantages.

But now, when it pours, and I’m stuck in a city not known for its drainage sys­tem / road plan­ning / traf­fic sense, I think I’d rather be curled up inside, read­ing a novel or watch­ing a movie, and sip­ping a nice red in front of the fire­place! (I know the fire­place is a lit­tle much for this weather, but I kind of like that idea).

It’s kind of iron­i­cal that the city touted to be India’s Sil­i­con Val­ley is reduced to this state after a bout of rains. Appar­ently, some areas around Banerghatta Road were so badly flooded that peo­ple couldn’t get out in the morn­ing. I’ve been on that road once, and I must say it’s in such a bad state that I won­der how peo­ple travel that side everyday.

It’s full of pot­holes and frankly, in stretches, there is no road. Surely, the gov­ern­ment has enough money to complete/repair the major roads and fly­overs in some kind of a decent time­frame. Tak­ing more than a year in today’s time, I think is an absolute sin. And espe­cially in a city of the size of Bangalore.

The city boasts of so many advan­tages. But this is one side that really stand out like a sore thumb.

Today’s paper had reports about the areas badly affected by the rains. And of course, two areas men­tioned was where I was headed last night and where I live currently.