One Rainy Evening

It was one of those atypical evenings when I left work at 6 pm and it was raining cats and dogs. I just felt glad that I was leaving for the day. It was one of those days. I always felt that I was running away on those days... not really leaving for the day. Leaving early i.e at 6 p.m. made me feel xtremely guilty : (

The cab arrived while the three of us, who were generally travelling in the same direction, stood watching the rain and commenting on it. Topics are scarce when it is raining like crazy and so one ends up saying the most inane things like "Its raining heavily na?" when it is obvious to all. And everyone agrees or comes up with something even more inane. We all jumped into the cab as if it was going to rush away without us.

Once the cab is on its way, I usually gaze outside or pick up the phone and start chatting instantly. This usually depends on my cab companions. Today my cab companions were two talkative guys who started talking in Hindi and I thought "Ok... lets start dialing.." when I was interrupted.

The bespectacled northie asked me "Is Bangalore always like this? ... in some state of construction which never gets completed?" while pointing to the Metro construction that was underway on MG Road. Being a Bangalorean, I know I am supposed to feel all supportive of Bangalore and yadda yadda yadda but Hello this is so not the Bangalore I fell in lowe with... so I laughed and agreed. I remember the time the Koramangala to Domlur flyover was being constructed and we wud be stuck in the same place for hours. We didn't complain then... why wud we now? While I pondered over bangaloreans apathy, the other bespectacled northie commented "In Noida, things happen so swiftly... I am very shocked at what is happening in Bangalore." More nodding and smiling from my side.

I was dreaming of the Bangalore that was - trees, parks, cool weather, early morning joggers, dew drops on the leaves, loong walks, lazy holidays, cubbon park, bhutta... when the first northie spoke again.

From the pitiable state of the Metro construction, we moved to movies which is one other topic which can be a major ice-breaker. Soon we were discussing the great movies we had watched and the ones that were not worth missing. The rain had become a drizzle by the time we reached CMH road, Indiranagar. Both the northie's got off at Indiranagar after an interesting discussion on how I was able to identify one of the guys as a Bengali (Bengoli).

I think the amit_123 stereotypes given by Krish Ashok is almost too good to be true - except in the case of Bengolis :) I could not tell the first Northie that, could I? I must do a blog post on Bengolis. They are almost true to type as Madrasis or Malayalis... Well, that is an interesting idea for a blog.