What is the relation between rain & romance? Well,
anyone like me who grew up watching Bollywood films would sense a direct
relation. It is an ever common sight to have a romantic song and dance sequence
shot in a rainy set. But that is not the agenda of this story. Here we will see
how rain affected the romance life of my buddy Rahul.
Rahul was so excited to have a job in Chennai, since his
girlfriend Preeti was doing her final year of engineering in Bangalore. It was
only 6 hours journey by train, very easily covered by an overnight train journey.
The only challenge was the fact her mother accompanied her in Bangalore, to
ensure she is staying disciplined and focused on studies. Not to forget, these
were the early days of the millennium, having an affair before completing the
graduation was still considered a taboo in most of the Indian society those
days. So every time Rahul made a trip to Bangalore over the weekend, she
used to bunk college on that Saturday and spend the day with him, and finally
return home at evening as if coming back from college. Rahul used to spend the
Saturday night with his college buddies and catch a bus/train next day to
return to Chennai.
This time, it was Preeti’s turn to visit Chennai. There was
a college picnic planned at Mysore, for which the college bus would start at 7
am and return back at 9 pm. Since the college was far away from Preeti’s rental
apartment, she told her mom she will be doing a sleepover at her friend
Kaveri’s place (which was very near to college) on the night before the picnic
and the night of return. Her actual plan was to catch the overnight train and
reach Chennai in the morning. She had planned to spend the day with Rahul instead of the picnic,
and catch the overnight train back to Bangalore. Being a Thursday (and not a
Saturday) there would hardly be any suspicions aroused in her mom’s mind.
Destiny, though, had something else planned.
Rahul was eagerly awaiting the Thursday morning. He had the
whole day planned out. He didn’t share the details with me. All I knew he was
supposed to meet Preeti at the railway station, bring her to our apartment to
freshen up. We were supposed to keep the apartment (as well as ourselves) as
clean and presentable as possible. And of course get out of the apartment as
early as possible and reach office by 9 am. The planning was fine, but the
execution wasn’t. Cleaning the apartment consumed more time and energy than we
had assumed. We all were very tired, and aided by a rainy night we had a deep
slumber.
Rahul woke me up “you lazy idiot, Preeti will be reaching here in 20
minutes and you didn’t wake me up!” growled Rahul.
I yawned and wondered what
went wrong. “how are you going to reach Chennai Central station in 20 minutes?”
Rahul was even more furious “Not the station you fool! She is coming here in 20
minutes. You didn’t wake me up and she was waiting for me at the station. Now
she is coming here in a Call Taxi”.
The urgency of the situation hit us. We had
20 minutes to get properly dressed before she arrives, and if possible I have
to get ready and go to office by 30 minutes.
Soon the doorbell rang. Preeti came inside, all drenched. We
noticed the overnight drizzle has
matured into a steady downpour by now. I saw most of the by-lanes
already waterlogged. While Preeti went to the bathroom to change and freshen
up, Rahul urged me to get some snacks from nearby shops to improve her mood. I
lazily explained that I am not feeling the urge to go out in the waterlogged
lanes to get breakfast, rather it was his duty as a boyfriend to brave the
storm and provide refreshments for his beloved. He too seemed to lack the urge
to go outside in the rain, leaving behind Preeti in the apartment. Finally we
settled for Maggie noodles, the ever dependable 'almost ready to cook' meal for all bachelor folks and
all those who were too lazy to cook. And then the calls started coming in. Both
myself and Rahul got calls from our respective managers. The rain was caused by
a north eastern monsoon, and was predicted to result in flooding. All employees
were advised to stay home, as dry and safe as possible till further instructions
from management. Those already in office were advised not to venture back home.
The impact of this news slowly sank in.
“Do you realize what
this means?” asked Rahul.
“Yes” I replied, “this means I cant go to office, so
it means you both need to put up with my presence till you go out”.
Rahul
immediately got a solution for the problem. “Lets go watch a movie for the
morning show instead of the noon show which we planned earlier” he suggested.
Preeti shrugged, watching a movie inside a multiplex was probably a better
option than watching me in this small 1 bed room apartment. Rahul went out to
look for a cab or auto, and returned after 20 minutes, drenched, exhausted and
depressed.
“There are no autos or buses or anything” he explained.
Preeti wasn’t
amused “why don’t you call a cab?”
Rahul hesitantly explained “no Cabs either.
Seems this is like a flood, so all transportations have been taken off the
road…” .
Preeti was furious “does this mean we have nothing to do but sit here
and watch your friend till I go to the railway station in evening?”
I got an
idea “well, there is something better to do… instead of watching me, try to
think of means of reaching the station in a flooded city with all
transportation taken off the roads” I suggested.
Preeti finally seemed to
realize the implication. She seemed shattered and started sobbing. Rahul gave
me a stern look and started comforting her “don’t worry sweetie, we will figure
out a way… we have time”.
I came out of the bed room and stepped in our small dining/living
room. I could hear Preeti asking “why do u stay in such a small apartment?
At least a 3 bed room is needed for you both and an occasional guest… why cant
you move to a bigger apartment with a little privacy?”
The answer was obvious
“We both together don’t make even one third of the money your father earns” I
thought Rahul will explain, but he said “Small is beautiful sweetie, see such a
cozy apartment. You and I sitting in this small cozy, room, looking at the rain
through the window… isn't it romantic?”
I had to interrupt their romance. “ the
window of the living room is broken, the couch is drenched and the living room floor is now
flooded too” I declared, “so I hope you will not mind me joining this cozy
atmosphere in this cozy bedroom”. With that I jumped on my bed, went under my blanket and tried to
fall asleep again.
Soon there was a loud knock on the door. I opened the door
to see Dev and Kunal with a huge backpack. Rahul look puzzled, Preeti looked
frustrated. We learnt that Dev and Kunal woke up to find their bathroom,
including toilet seat was flooded. Unable to answer nature’s call, they hoped
to reach office and fulfill that duty. But soon they also were asked by their
management to stay home. Finally after few phone calls with their other
buddies, they realized our apartment was the only one higher than ground level,
so probably with an un-flooded bathroom.
As Dev beat Kunal in the race to the
bathroom (and Kunal started to beat the bathroom door loudly), Preeti whispered to Rahul
“What is this? Is this a public rest room or an apartment? People come here to
relieve themselves?”
Rahul calmly responded “Sweetie, they are friends….. wont
you feel proud of me that I am helping friends when they need me most?”
Preeti
seemed to calm down with that. I asked Kunal what was in their backpack. He
explained it had 2 packets of biscuits, a dozen eggs, another packet of maggie
noodles, 5.5 liters drinking water and spare clothing. Everything they thought
was necessary to survive the flood.
Preeti again whispered angrily “So this
apartment is going to be a relief camp now?”
Rahul started to explain “Sweetie,
this is why you love me so much, you always appreciate how caring I am….”
But
Preeti cut him short. “I am really proud that you are helping all your friends
and all the needy people. But even your girl friend needs some help. Please
arrange some way for me to return to the railway station as soon as possible,
there is nothing else possible here”.
And that's when Kunal mentioned “No use. All
trains n flights cancelled”.
Kunal was supposed to go to his hometown on the next day. He
had a ticket booked for Friday evening. Since office was cancelled, he had
called his travel agent to find if his ticket can be rescheduled to an earlier
day. That’s how he came to know from his agent, all flights and trains from
Chennai were cancelled till the next day due to the rain and flood. Apparently
all railway tracks and airport runways were submerged. Preeti got devastated by
this news. Was it due to the fear of getting caught by her Mom about her secret
Chennai adventure? Or was it due to the thought of spending 2 days in this
small apartment with all 4 of us? I wasn’t sure.
But I tried to cheer her up
“think positive, instead of a half day date, you are getting an extended
weekend date with Rahul” I explained.
She didn’t seem to see the bright side of
it. Rather she looked in a disgusted way to Rahul as Kunal started relieving
himself in the bathroom with sound effects comparable to Dolby digital systems.
“What kind of uncivilized friends do you have!” observed Preeti.
Rahul went
defensive “Actually, he is not my friend. He is Govind’s friend.”
It was my
chance to speak up. I explained it might have been un civilized if Kunal made
that sound effect sitting in this room, but think of it, he is doing that in
the toilet. Anybody, even Rahul can do like that in toilet, especially after a
long wait.
Preeti looked at Rahul with utter shock & disbelief “You! You
also….” She went speechless.
Rahul again gave me a stern look and signaled me
to stay quiet. “No baby, how can you think of me like that? Have I ever made
any loud sound ever, even from my voice? You always say I am so gentle, I can
never shout at anyone”.
The rest, as they say, was history. It was one of the worst
north eastern monsoon which hit Chennai that decade. The rain continued till the afternoon, but
the effect stayed for days. Trains and flights resumed after 2 days. some parts
of the city stayed flooded even for a week. Many relief camps were set up by
the government, yet hundreds died from diseases as well as stampede at the
relief centers. For us, we were trapped indoor for 2 days. We five human beings
some how managed to survive in that 12 by 12 bedroom (considering the living
room was flooded via broken window) with only 2 beds. I spent most of these
days playing cards with Kunal & Dev. Occasionally Dev entertained us with
his singing. Outside streets were also flooded so we couldn’t get additional
food. We survived on our limited ration of water, Maggie noodles, boiled eggs
and biscuits for these 2 days. Much to disgust of Preeti, Kunal kept slurping
while eating and burping after eating (in addition to his other infamous sound
effects) for most of these 2 days. Her other shock was the fact Rahul himself
snored (along with Kunal off course) very loudly. Apparently she never slept
these 2 days due to the combined snoring from these 2 guys. It was uneasy for
her to spend 2 days in a room full of 4 guys, 3 of them unknown to her. More
discomforting was the number of lies she had to tell her mother. Thursday
evening she called her to inform she has reached home from picnic. Friday
morning she called again to say she woke up late so she will directly go to
college and return home after that. Friday evening she again informed that she
has to stay back on pretext of group study for a class-test on Saturday. Finally the
flooding receded in our area by Friday evening, and Rahul was able to arrange
a bus ticket for Saturday morning. But unfortunately, her cover was blown as
her protective mother had to ensure she is well nourished before the class-test. She
had rushed over to her friend Kaveri's home on Saturday morning with ample snacks and
food only to find her daughter not present there! After checking at the college
(where Preeti was absent since Thursday) she panicked and tried calling Preeti.
She was on her way back to Bangalore and thus her phone was outside network coverage,
so they couldn’t talk. Completely shattered and terrified, she reported to the Police about her missing
daughter suspecting a potential kidnapping. You all can very well imagine the welcome Preeti received upon her
return!
That reaction, coupled with her disillusionment about Rahul’s “cheap” lifestyle,
his “disgusting” friends, "huge" appetite for food and snoring habits caused the
romantic relation to come to a premature end. Contrary to what we were accustomed to seeing in Bollywood movies, in real life, rain didn’t enhance romance. Not the least
for Rahul. As the city mourned the lives and property lost in the flood, Rahul
too mourned the romance of his life which got washed away in it.
