The night I got rained out!
June 14th, 2009 | Published in Adventure, Humour, India, Living, Personal | 16 Comments
Of course we all know what happens on Bangalore roads when it rains. But I was the least prepared for the events to unfold that night. After dinner with friends at Indiranagar I set off towards Koramangala. It had been raining for around an hour but I didn’t really realize how bad things were outside.
The Intermediate Ring Road had gotten fully water logged. Worse still the water on one side was sloshing over like huge ocean waves into the other side (the side I was on!). As a result, there were cars trying to move through higher than knee deep water on the same side of the road in two different directions. In Bangalore, traffic is disastrous enough even on different sides of the road. So you can imagine the scenario.
In front of me, stretched an endless stream of vehicles all trying to negotiate the high waters and not having much luck. Some vehicles had gotten stuck adding to the woes of those behind.
Suddenly, I felt a gushing sounds inside my car and realize that water had begun to enter the vehicle. I decided that panicking would not be the right thing and weigh my options. Going ahead and getting stuck in the water with no way out of the car. Or jumping out of the car and letting it go down instead. Smartly, I decided on the latter.
I tried and park the car somewhere on the side though there was considerable water there. Some chaiwallas were having a great time laughing at what was happening around. What did they care? I looked with slight dismay as the car started getting submerged with the water rising every minute.
A guy who was at the chai shop helpfully pointed out a lane just behind me and suggested I should try getting back into the car and reversing into it. A smart suggestion in hindsight. I dove back into the car, now with water covering the base of the car, and said a small prayer. The car started and I reversed quickly into the lane. Thankfully, there wasn’t any vehicle immediately behind me.
I found higher ground and decided to stay put for a while. This was a dead end lane and there was really no way out. It was past midnight now. I looked out into the main road : cars still honking, and utter chaos as people were getting stuck everywhere. I decided that I didn’t want to get back there in a hurry.
Just inside a lane, I found a few service apartments and one of them let me use their rest room to freshen up (I had also gotten drenched after all my adventures). A friend called suggesting I try and reach her place in Koramangala. Another friend gave me his colleague’s number — she happened to live across the road (but I couldn’t even think about crossing the road!).
There was absolutely no way to get out. Finally at around 1 am I decided to stay put and got myself checked into the Golf Inn which looked like a decent place. From my window I could get a glimpse of the chaos that still ensued outside.
At around 6 am in the morning, I checked out and finally drove home. My Zen didn’t let me down and actually started even after the night’s lashing. The ring road bore a rather worn out look with garbage scattered everywhere.
It was relief to finally get home!
After hearing of my rainy night adventure, a well meaning friend (instead of rescuing me from my night stranded out!), said I could avoid what happened by getting this instead.
June 14th, 2009 at 10:58 pm (#)
An adventure indeed, the good part is, it a good life experience. Glad you are safe :)
June 15th, 2009 at 3:06 am (#)
Unbelievable! This is Bangalore? I hope the government is taking notes there and doing something.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:41 am (#)
Great to know you was safe. All’s well that ends well :-)
At 10:30 around I started in the reverse direction, from Koramangala to Indiranagar. I *knew* the intermediate ring road would be completely waterlogged (which was confirmed by a friend left earlier), so went around using ORR and Marathalli. It took time but there was no risk of getting stuck. 45 mins flat I was home.
Try ORR on next flooding day.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:07 am (#)
All Indian cities are totally unprepared for some of the very obvious and repetitive things like rains.
Get an SUV– Hummer may be– you can hop over other vehicles and reach home… :)
June 15th, 2009 at 1:09 pm (#)
I have decided to never drive if i sense rain
I do not want to be washed away and never be found again
June 15th, 2009 at 1:31 pm (#)
@ venky: yes, was a good experience! but one that only reflects the poor state of the city’s drainage system.
@ prasoon: yes, this is bangalore!
@ kousik: that was a smart thing to do. i hadn’t been caught in the rain earlier and didn’t have a clue about the ring road. now i know!
@ srinidhi: true! i don’t think any city is really well prepared when it comes to rains. and this when we know it happens year on year, without fail!
@ arvind: that’s a good philosophy!
June 15th, 2009 at 7:30 pm (#)
Oh No. Sounds bad., good to be in chennai as it never rains here :(
June 16th, 2009 at 10:56 am (#)
Amazing video, that fellow almost drowned and got trapped inside the vehicle, or so I thought.
I was in a car too that night, and got home by twelve thirty, through the swimming pools.
June 16th, 2009 at 3:12 pm (#)
I lived in bangalore and thought worst of bangalore rain but this is beyond my experience & imagine. lucky me.;)
if & when i relocate i should consider buying that vehicle..
June 18th, 2009 at 10:04 am (#)
Awww it is news. Somehow thought it rains as sparsely in Bangalore, as it does in Hyd. Chalo you gave me one more point to fend back when my B’lorean friends give me that Hyd-sux thing next. :)
June 21st, 2009 at 10:44 am (#)
It was lucky that you were in a part of town where there was a hotel/inn nearby.
June 21st, 2009 at 1:45 pm (#)
This reminds me of Mumbai. We tend to stay overnight at our offices — having learnt this is the best option — the hard way. Glad you found a decent hotel to check into and that all is well.
Best
Lubna
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:53 pm (#)
This sounds like — Mumbai Rains.… though it hasn’t started raining here still this time around.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:17 am (#)
@ Vijay: it never rains in chennai? gosh!
@ Grasshopper: you too? but at least you got home!
@ Yuva: yeah, it looks like it will survive the bangalore rains :-)
@ Nidarshana: when it rains, it pours! and with the city’s drainage system, it takes about 20 minutes exactly (sometimes lesser) for all the low lying areas to get flooded!
@ Roshan: i know! that lane was swarming with inns :-)
@ Lubna: ah yes, I’ve seen similar days in Mumbai but stayed back in the office. played dumb charades in the office the whole night!!
@ Nandish: yeah, hope it doesn’t rain like this in mumbai. the floods last time around were pretty bad.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:57 am (#)
haha — yes, the travails of the monsoon in this country. sometimes even when people relate stories of the day bombay was flooded — it sounds adventorous. but i guess being caught must be miserable! over here its still the light drizzle before the storm and is still enjoyable!
June 26th, 2009 at 1:36 am (#)
[…] Hard to wake up at 9am = midnight. Shower. Feel 1000% better. Driver takes me to the Yahoo! office. It’s in a complex with Microsoft, Google, Target, Dell, and many other US brands. Once you’re inside it’s like every other Yahoo! office except the food — built essentially to corporate spec. Meet with Anita, Raghu, and Rajeev: go over PR angles and they brief me on the media interviews. These guys and gal are on top of things. Meet with Mani and her team: great group. Skip intern pizza talks because I can’t eat cheese, going for the cafeteria instead. Mistake. Order a veggie grill thinking that since it’s grilled, it’s cooked enough. I only take a few bites of this before thinking it’s too risky. I eat some bread and Indian mixtures. Not sure what the culprit is but something doesn’t sit well in my stomach. Give prediction markets portion of my talk to a few interested people in labs. Very sharp group. Meet with Dinesh and Sachin, their intern, and one other. Interesting work. Meet with Chid and Preeti on Webscope. Back to hotel. Call Lauren. Good to hear her voice. Ashley wants to say hi. She’s so adorable. She finds it hilarious that I am about to have dinner while she is eating breakfast. I can hear her laughing uncontrollably at the thought. Sarah says hi too and even ends our conversation without prompting with a “bye, love you”. I go down to the restaurant for dinner. Have a chicken Indian dish with paratha (is it lachha paratha?) bread. Spicy (sweat inducing) yet so delicious. The bread is fantastic — round white with flaky layers. Back to room. TV. CNN. CNBC. ESPN. Hard to sleep. There is an incredible thunderstorm with torrents of rain. I open my balcony door briefly to catch its power. I find out later that monsoon season is just beginning. I also find out that it rained so hard and so long that the roads flooded to the point of becoming impassible. In fact, Anita, the Bangalore PR lead, who had gone out to dinner, could not get home and instead checked into a hotel before going home briefly in the morning and then back to Yahoo! for our 11am meeting. Finally get to sleep. […]