Why I like the rains!!!

There is something about the rains. Something unreal, something surreal. Every time they came along, they bring along with them a strange freshness, something that dissolves all the dust that has hitherto gathered on the dusty roads, on the rusty leaves, on the thirsty souls. And the true spirit of life gets unleashed.

An hour-long paddle, through the puddles of few of the busiest roads of the city, definitely had its role to play to arouse, that strange disgust that besieges me every time I am confronted with the unabashed luxury on display at our five/seven (I don't know how many)-star hotels, with a greater intensity today.

The press meet was organised by a real estate major, which will be commencing operations of its luxury resort on the Kanya Kumari coast on October 31. All the villas, and rooms in the resort have been constructed in such a way, that the customer will be able to enjoy the pristine confluence of the Bengal waters with the Arabian Sea in the Indian Ocean, exclusively from his room.

When Sunil Shetty had bought out a part of the Chowpatty beach for his exclusive Sports Club, H20 some eight years back, I felt that the charm of the beach had been taken away from it. It really surprised me, how a person had been able to buy out a part of public property that was a part of the city's heritage to make it exclusive? Raj Thackerey communism can probably fetch you more votes than communalism, the choice is yours. Anyways, is it really necessary to make everything beautiful exclusive? I can understand the need to maintain the exclusivity of the grandiose at display in Park Sheraton. Hundreds of crores of rupees need to be pumped in to erect these modern marvels of luxury and hospitality. But Chowpatty? The Kanyakumari Bay?

Probably, Mr XYZ of Auromatrix Hotels Pvt Ltd, erecting the Sparsa resort at Kanya Kumari, can argue, "When Swami Vivekanand, actually sailed into Kanya Kumari, a dire need for a good hotel was felt. We should not be caught napping this time round. And anyways we will be contributing to the state's treasury by making a part of the bay exclusive. This will in turn help us achieve the inclusive growth, that we yearn for." And who knows, this might even serve as a point. Fair enough.

Anyways, on my way back from Park Sheraton, I took the 21G, got down at Guindy station, waded through the subway and lots of more mud. Just a share-auto and I'd be back in the comforts of an air-conditioned office, a luxury that I have got used to, a luxury that doesn't ruffle my spirit up anymore.

The share autowalas too wanted to make hay while it rained. A Guindy station - Olympia tech park ride which should ideally cost, Rs 5 was today being catered at Rs 7. While getting in I made it clear that I won't pay a penny more than the normal rate. However, I guess the idea had failed to cross the language barrier.

I had been made to sit on the front seat, with my bag hanging out and my left sleeve left to the mercy of the rains, and no one had been in a mood to budge an inch today, the rains included.

I decided to join the party and refused to pay the extra two rupees to the share-autowala on getting down at Olympia. "It isn't about the two rupees. It is about not promoting the opportunistic mentality that grips so many of us and lures us into taking advantage of someone else's agony to make some more money," I told myself.

The free-market demand-supply principle gets jeopardized, when supply is manipulated every time the demand is seen to get caught up in a tricky situation. One can always argue, that if one auto-wala charges more, there always will be other autowalas, who will be ready to operate at a lower margin, and try to draw a few more customers from the previous autowalas. Well, it did not happen today. India is a fast growing, shrewd economy. People have learnt to do their homework in their businesses. Networking and collaborating with the competitors, to ensure that the maximum possible price can be drawn from the customer for any product, service rendered at any value point; has become the norm of the day. The autowalas are no exception.

This autowala was not ready to budge. I spotted a traffic policeman a few metres away and decided to take my chances. I said, "Do what you can, I won't pay the extra two rupees!" and just had to walk away from the scene. The autowala seemed to be lauding my spirit, in Tamil, but I guess the traffic policeman's presence had done the trick. Mere presence of a regulator sometimes can serve the purpose. I had managed to save two rupees!!

When things are not going your way, nothing does. After having spent more than two minutes at the road divider and seeing the traffic flowing in from the recently inaugurated flyover refusing to relent and stop for a few seconds unless asked to do so, I took a couple of paces and tried to slow down the traffic, but the Maruti Esteem guy seemed to be in no mood to get delayed. He kept honking, he even switched on his headlights but didn't put his foot on the brake. A basketball player's reflexes had to be summoned to get out of his way just in time. I felt like running after him and giving him a piece of my mind. Instead I decided to prey on the car behind him. However, to my dismay I didn't even have to wave my hand to stop the next guy. They had decided to make way for us. After crossing the road, it struck me that the traffic policeman I had spotted while getting down from the share auto wasn't doing his job. A little neck-stretching and I got to know that he was actually shouting at a share autowala. Regulators, sometimes end up forgetting their primary jobs. But we can't fault them, not them alone. There is so much that remains to be done.
Some other time same day, on my way in another auto.... The driver was wading slowly through one of the many huge puddles that have submerged the roads and flyovers gifted by the chief minister to his city. A white Maruti Esteem zoomed past us and splashed a bucketful of water on the face of my autowala. The damage had been restricted to my T-shirt and I had been spared of the humiliation of having mud splashed onto my face. But the autowala didn't seem to be a Gandhian. He picked up speed once out of the puddle and trailed the Esteem at a commendable pace for a couple of hundred metres. Finally, when a traffic signal got the better of the Maruti, the autowala caught up with the car, and made the driver step into the rains. From nowhere, two-three colleagues of the autowala emerged and sprayed a volley of Tamil one-liners on the Marutiwala's esteem.

What goes around, definitely does come around. One needs to get out of one's air-conditioned car and get drenched in the rains for a few minutes to understand that rains in the city, doesn't just imply the luxury to be able to carve your name on the windows from the inside of your cars; the joy of being able to zoom through the puddles across the city and the slight delays you have to deal with as you reach your destination high and dry. It also means getting drenched from head to toe and having to travel in buses full of wet stench, it means having to work with sticky clothes and smelly shoes on, for the rest of the day. It also means collecting all your life's buyings under the thatched roof and putting them inside one plastic bag and rushing with your kids to some subway, some railway station...some place where the rains can't get your kids, the rains can't get you...

Anyways, I better go and file a good story for Sparsa Resorts, the content for which I actually get paid. After all, we all want to live to fight another day, we all live today for that some other day!!!

P.S. DL3CR338 is the white Maruti Esteem and E367 is the no-nonsense autowala, just in case you want to catch up with them.

-Chirantan